General Hospital Redux
by Stratusfied247
Summary: This is an alternate universe story where Lorenzo and Luis Alcazar were in charge of the Port Charles underworld instead of Sonny Corinthos. Also, a custody arrangement was agreed upon between Carly and AJ. More notes inside. [COMPLETED]
1. The Die is Cast

**_Please note the following General Hospital changes in cast: Carly Roberts-Alcazar will be played by Tamara Braun. AJ Quartermaine will be played by Sean Kanan. Lucky Spencer will be played by Jonathan Jackson. Emily Bowen Quartermaine will be played by Amber Tamblyn. Lois Cerullo will be played by Rena Sofer. Nikolas Cassadine will be played by Coltin Scott. Gia Campbell will be played by Marisa Ramirez. Michael Quartermaine has become a victim of Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome and is now17 years old. _**

**_Pairings inside: LoCa, Luda, JaSam, Zem, Rexis. There are more to come as the story goes on._**

**_The only characters I personally own are the characters of Sofie and Sage Alcazar (Lorenzo and Carly's daughters) andan OFC that will be coming in later in the story named Kayla._**

**_Please remember that this story takes place in an alternate reality. Lorenzo and Luis Alcazar were and are the leaders of the criminal element of Port Charles. Lucky Spencer never became a cop. The death of Zander Smith didn't happen. Ric Lansing is not related to Sonny Corinthos at all, though he is still the District Attorney. _**

The world moved in slow motion, and no matter how hard she jerked her body, she couldn't get free of the hands that held tightly to her. She couldn't escape to the other side of the street. Sam McCall cried out, "Jason!" As she watched Jason Morgan fall to the ground underneath a spattering of bullets, she felt her body sagging, then sinking, until she was on her knees and the only thing that held her upright was the grip that two members of the PCPD had on her arms.

The light dusting of snow on the ground melted into wet circles on her knees. She jerked hard from the policemen and fell forward. Through blurred eyes, she watched her black leather covered hands flatten the snow. Jet black hair fell around her face, blocking the wind that tried to frost her cheeks. Her throat tightened and her body jerked as she tried to take in breaths. This wasn't happening, she thought. This couldn't be happening.

Then, as though a curtain had been moved in her head, she realized that no one was holding her anymore. Sam rushed across the street, uncaring of any cars that may have been coming down the main road. She started on her hands and knees, then gradually rose until her feet were on the ground. At the curb, she collapsed again to her knees, but continued to scurry across until she could reach out and touch him.

The blood on the snow-covered ground was so bright, so sickeningly red that it looked like paint. She stopped and stared it, leaking onto the ground. For a moment, she thought she must have been dreaming, because it just didn't look real enough. She was dreaming, or someone was playing a practical joke on her, because blood was not supposed to be that red.

Voices around her brought Sam back to reality. It wasn't a dream, and he was laying there, his eyelids slack and only slight groans coming from his lips. She moved closer to him and her knees crushed the reddened snow. She found it strange that her eyes were dry. As much as she loved Jason, as much as she needed him, there were no tears falling. She thought it was because he would want her to stay strong. He didn't want her to cry if he weren't there to dry her tears.

Hands grabbed her arms, and suddenly tears were there. They were trying to snatch her away from him, and she didn't even knew who they were. As far as she knew, they could have been with the attackers, ready to drag her off somewhere and kill her next. Sam fell forward and when she came back, she was holding tightly to the butt of Jason's gun. She aimed at the police officers and screamed, "Get the hell away from me!"

"Sam!" She knew the voice that called her name, and it wasn't Jason's. Even though it was one that she trusted, she didn't turn away. She didn't drop her shaking aim at the police officers that edged closer to her, their own guns out and pointing at her. "Sam, put the gun down."

"They let him get shot," she said, trying to steady her arms. Her elbows were bending, and at each drop of the gun, she straightened her arms again, only for them to weaken as her body started to shake. "They let him shoot him and they're trying to drag me away!"

"They won't take you away, I won't let them. But, right now, you need to think about Jason."

She blinked and slowly her arms started to lower. Jason, she thought. He was lying there, almost dying, and even though they were outside of the police station, no one had been called. She could hear police talking around her, but there were no sirens. No ambulance was on its way. Would they really let him die on their stoop? Would they let him bleed to death in front of the PCPD station?

"Sam." And this time, the voice made her turn. It also made her drop the gun, and let it clatter against the ground. She saw a blur of blue as the police rushed forward and kicked the gun aside. Another voice told them to stand back, leave her alone, and she just how much guilt Mac Scorpio felt over this happening on his own steps that he sent his own officers back.

Jason looked at her with blue eyes peeking through his half closed lids. His eyelashes rested against his cheekbones, and she thought how impossibly long they looked. His lips quivered slightly as he spoke her name again, forcing the syllable out as though he knew that his voice was the only thing keeping her from attacking someone.

Sam felt a bump against her leg and looked down. Jason's index finger touched just above her knee. She grabbed his hand and brought it up to her mouth. She pressed her lips to his hand and held him for uncountable seconds before collapsing onto his chest. She felt blood against her face and sat up abruptly. "Jason…" She gulped and touched his face, gripping either side of his head with both hands. As her fingers moved, she left smudges of red against his cheeks. Her lip trembled as she said, "Jason…"

"Lorenzo," he said weakly, blinking against the snow that fell on his face.

"He's fine." She blinked then looked up. In her tunnel vision, she had only been able to see Jason and his blood. Only at the mention of his name did she remember that Lorenzo Alcazar had been standing just behind him. Only then did she remember watching Jason push both Alcazar and their attorney, Alexis Davis, to the ground just moments before the bullets hit him. "Tell him you're fine," she said through tight lips.

"I'm fine," Lorenzo said, pushing himself to his feet. His face was blanched and as he rose, moving out of her immediate view, she saw the drops of blood fall from his fingers to hit the ground. She looked back up at him and said, "It's just in the shoulder. Alexis…"

"I'm fine," she said, shaking off the snow. "The ambulance is on its way." There were no bullet holes in her. She was fine.

Sam looked back to Jason. "They're both fine. And you're gonna be fine." She sniffed and wiped at the tears that coated her cheeks. The blood on her hands had already started to dry and when she touched the wetness of her face, flaking red chips melted in her tears. "Everybody's fine, okay? You're gonna be okay."

She bent down and pressed her lips against his. "I love you," she murmurred against his face. She felt his lips move, but didn't hear a sound. Yet, she knew that he'd told her that he loved her, too. He had to love her, because his heart was leaking out onto her jacket and she could feel it. And he would be okay, and he would get vengeance, because this was not something that Jason Morgan or Lorenzo Alcazar would let slide. And, if it came down to it, neither would she.


	2. Information Overload

"…Again, Jason Morgan, local alleged gangster and right hand to Port Charles crime boss, Lorenzo Alcazar, has been shot outside of the Port Charles Police Department. There is still no word on his condition, but bystanders say…"

Caroline "Carly" Alcazar could give less than a damn what bystanders had to say. They knew nothing. Besides, most of the people on the streets would have just blamed Jason's shooting on himself. He shouldn't have been in that dirty business, they would have said. You reap what you sow, and all that garbage that made her want to slap them all. The bystanders didn't give a damn whether or not Jason lived or died.

By the time Carly had been told to turn on the news, they were already loading Jason into an ambulance. Looking past Sam McCall, she could see Jason's face. His skin was blanched and there was a lot of blood that made his black shirt stick thickly to his skin, but he was uncovered. No sheet over his face meant that he was alive, and for the moment, that would have to do.

What worried her more than anything was that nothing had been said about Lorenzo except that he reportedly employed Jason. She wanted to believe that they would have been shouting with glee if her husband were dead, but at the same time, she couldn't be sure. No one had called to tell her he was alright. When the news cameras passed the area, she didn't see him standing by, the black hair that reached down to his jawline blowing in the wind. She stared at the television, and didn't see him anywhere, and that worried her.

"Mom? Dad's okay, right?"

"They didn't say anything, so that means he's okay, right?"

Carly looked at the girls as though she were seeing them for the first time. She had known they were there, as they had been the ones that came running downstairs to tell her to turn on the television. It dawned on her that they shouldn't be there, they shouldn't be watching this. They were only fifteen, and though they knew about the life that their father led, they didn't need to see it so up close and personal.

"And Jason's not dead. They didn't cover his face."

"I saw Sam, and I saw Jason, but I didn't see Dad. That meant he's not hurt, but Jason is."

"How bad is Jason hurt, Mom?"

Sofie and Sage Alcazar, possibly, spent as much time with Jason as they did their own father. The two had been friends since long before they were born, and would be forever. They shouldn't have been watching him, either. They shouldn't have had to find out that he'd been shot by watching the news. None of them should have found out that way.

Carly shook her head. "You two should, um… You shouldn't be watching this." She turned the television off, then walked away. She stopped in front of the mahogany desk that sat a few feet from the front door and alternately looked from the phone to the door. She had three choices. One, she could call Lorenzo directly. Two, she could ask the guard at the door if he knew anything. Three, she could go out and find out for herself.

Option one was dicey. If Lorenzo were hurt, he wouldn't answer. However, if he were meeting with people, trying to find out what happened, he might not answer then, either. Whichever way it went, she would become upset if he didn't answer the phone and her mind would go to the worst-case scenario. Option two was almost ridiculous, as there was no way that Max would know anything before she did. Option three seemed to be her only choice, and that was contingent on Max even letting her get out the front door.

The phone rang and she pounced. By the second ring, she was juggling the phone and thrusting it to her ear. "Lorenzo?" She stopped and sighed. Carly looked to the girls and shook her head as she said, "Alexis…" She sagged against the desk, using one hand to steady her. Though usually strong, she feared that without something sturdy to hold on to, her knees would buckle and she would collapse. "Why isn't anybody telling me anything? Why did I have to hear about this on the news, huh?"

"Lorenzo is fine," Alexis told her. The woman's voice was flat, almost deadpan. They didn't always get along, but Carly knew enough about Alexis to know that there was always something in her voice unless she was talking to the police. She also knew that she would never speak to her in the same tone that she reserved for officers of the law. Carly guessed shock as the culprit. "He got hit in the shoulder, and they took him to GH. Jason got us out of the way before it all hit the fan."

"What about Jason?" Her head dropped for a second, then rose back to look at her daughters. "Is Jason alright?"

"Carly…" Alexis paused, then sighed. "Honestly, right now, I don't know. I'm at the hospital and I'm trying to get some news. I'm also trying to get Lorenzo to let them work on his shoulder and stop him from storming out of the hospital. All I know is that Jason was hit multiple times and they're trying to get him stable enough for surgery."

"I'm coming down there."

"No!" Another sigh, this one harder. "I'm calling because Lorenzo wants you to stay at the penthouse. I'm begging you, stay at the penthouse. It's bad enough I've got to take care of Sam, I don't need to take care of you, too."

"I don't need you to take care of me! I need you to go find out how Jason is doing! I need you to tell Lorenzo that I'm on my way!" Carly's grip on the phone was so tight that her knuckles started to ache. Her heart was beating rapidly and the angrier she got, the harder it became to breathe. She forced herself to calm down, at least enough to stop herself from hyperventilating. "I just need to know that everybody's okay, and I can only do that if I'm there."

"Carly, Lorenzo wants you to stay there. He wants to know that you and the girls are safe."

"Yeah, well… I want him to not be shot, but we can't all have what we want, now can we?"

Carly slammed the phone down. Her hand hovered over the phone for a second, then grabbed it again. She took the headset off the cradle and laid it against the desk, just in case Alexis tried to call back. Then, she pulled out her cell phone and turned it off. When she was sure there was no way that anyone could reach her without coming physically to see her, she turned to the girls. She wanted to get to the hospital, and she knew that they wouldn't let her leave them behind. Plus, she wasn't really secure in leaving them at the penthouse alone.

"Get your coats," she said as she stomped off towards the stairs. "We're going to the hospital, right now."


	3. Let Me Wallow

"Sam, I need you to tell me what happened. Why were you outside of the police station?"

Her eyes were dry, and Mac Scorpio was but a blurred mass in front of her. She blinked her and he blurred more as the moisture started to return. "I can't…" Sam blinked more and her hands rose to her eyes. "I can't do this now, Mac. Not like you care, anyway." She groaned and slouched in the chair. "It's your station he was shot in front of, your cops that held me back from getting to him. You could give less than a damn what happened to Jason, so stop pretending, alright?"

She didn't want to hear what any of them said. All she wanted to do was see Jason. She wanted someone to tell him how he was doing. The last time she'd seen him was as he was wheeled out of the emergency room, headed for surgery. The blood wasn't flowing as quickly as it had been outside, but she could still see pieces of gauze that were soaked with his blood.

Too many people came around her. The Quartermaines, who paid no attention to their wayward son until something happened, wanted to scream as though they had a right to know anything. They placed blame and pushed their way in to see Jason. It wasn't fair. They could see him, but she couldn't? One of the nurses had come out and said that he was asking for her, but still, she couldn't get inside. The Quartermaines wouldn't move.

And then there was Lorenzo Alcazar. She could vaguely remember him talking to her, though what he said was still a mystery. His voice, softer than all the rest, was lost in a sea of screams, shouts and loud talking. She got the idea that he was trying to help her, trying to calm her down, but nothing but Jason was going to do that.

He was kneeling before her like a ghost, suddenly replacing the police commissioner. His black hair was pushed back, but slowly falling into his face again. A royal blue shirt flapped open around him, buttoned at the bottom. His right arm was heavily bandaged and strapped to his body. His eyes were gentle, and Sam knew he was trying to convey compassion, but at the moment, she couldn't accept it. Looking at him, she could only think that he was up and walking while Jason was in surgery.

"If they say anything else to you, direct them to Alexis. You don't have to say anything."

Sam looked at him and nodded. She let her body fall into the depths of the large plastic chair and pulled her feet up. Curled up into a ball, she looked at her hands. The blood was still on them. The blood was still everywhere. "I gotta know the second he comes out, okay? The second they put him in a room, I need to know."

"As soon as I know…"

"You'll tell Carly," she said, her voice short and staccato. "As soon as he's out, you'll tell Carly, and ya know what? I undertand why. He's her best friend, and she's your wife, and you'll feel the need to tell him, but I need to know. The Quartermaines won't tell me, and the doctors will tell you first. So, just… when he's out, find somebody that can tell me."

Sam knew she was being unfair, but she needed to express to Lorenzo how badly she needed this information. Yes, there were a lot of people in Port Charles who were closer to him than she was. His sister, Emily, hadn't even been called. Her nephew, who he had raised for the first year of the boy's life, wasn't at the hospital. He was probably as ignorant of the situation as Emily. Carly and Jason had a bond that Sam could only wish that she had with him. And Lorenzo…

When a car accident with his brother, AJ, left Jason Quartermaine void of his memory and previously jovial disposition, it was Lorenzo Alcazar who took him in. When he changed his name to Jason Morgan and needed a job, some way to be independent of the family that wanted to run his life, Alcazar had given him all of that and more. Both men had lost brothers of their own, Lorenzo a twin to the dark business they worked in and Jason to brain damage, and had found that familial bond with each other. Lorenzo was as close to Jason as anyone could ever be and he deserved to know of his condition, but so did Sam.

"I know you're angry right now, and you're hurt." Lorenzo touched her leg lightly and Sam jumped. She settled herself and looked down at his hand. "But, believe me, Jason will be fine, and I'm going to find out who did this. But, right now, Jason would want to know that you're okay."

"I'm fine!" She shook her head and lowered her cheek to rest on her knees. Sam bit her bottom lip to stop its quivering. "I just need to know about Jason, alright? I just…" She stopped as a familiar voice, almost shrew-like, followed the whoosh of the automatic doors opening. "And you should handle that 'cause if she comes starting with me, I swear I'll hit her. No offense, but I can't handle…" Her arm waved out behind her without her body turning. "…that, right now."

Lorenzo sighed and turned his head. Sam would have said that he couldn't handle it, either, but if there were anyone besides Jason who could handle Carly Alcazar, it was her husband. He gave her a final pat on the leg and rose to his feet, leaving Sam alone.

Being by herself, she could focus on what was important. She stared across the hall and looked into the room that had previously held Jason. She'd stood at the window, staring inside, waiting for someone to tell her anything. Waiting for someone other than the police or Alexis to talk to her. Now, the room was empty except for the orderlies cleaning up the floor. They were preparing the room for someone else, and if they ever put anyone inside, she would finally turn away. Without Jason in the room, it wasn't quite as important as it had been half an hour before.

Sam curled herself up tighter and decided to wait. Someone had to come and talk to her. Someone had to tell her how the surgery was going, even if it were just to tell her that Jason wasn't out yet. And at some point, the District Attorney would make his way towards her and badger her a lot more than Mac had. And then, Alexis Davis would take him off of her hands and she would be free to wait again. Because if there was one thing that D.A. Ric Lansing enjoyed more than his ever-failing attempts to destroy Alcazar's empire, it was facing off with the firey Cassadine attorney.


	4. The Family Grows

Michael Morgan Quartermaine came to a skidding halt just a few feet away from the sliding glass doors. His eyes scanned the room before him, and he didn't know just who he should have been running towards. First instinct was automatically to go to his mother. Even though she didn't always know how to handle a situation, she was sure to find out any and all information. However, seated just feet away was Sam McCall, and she was covered in blood but not injured, which led him to believe that she had been there when it happened.

It wasn't an easy decision. Going to either woman would leave the other with an empty stomach. If he went to Sam, Carly would bring the roof down on them with her wails of abandonment. That is, if she didn't decide to give him the silent treatment for ignoring her. If he went to Carly, then Sam would think that he'd lied when he told his uncle that he would give the woman a shot. She seemed to make him happy, and that was about as good as any of them were going to get. And that was all excluding the fact that his father was riding his heels.

Alan Quartermaine, Jr., known to everyone as AJ, had a less than amicable relationship with everyone involved. His drinking was the reason that Jason ended up a criminal instead of following in their parents footsteps and becoming a doctor. His drinking also led to the one night stand that produced Michael, and caused a battle that lasted more than five years for the boy until finally it was decided to share custody. The fact that it was Lorenzo Alcazar who talked Carly into the agreement left a tension when all three were ever in the same place together. If Michael were to approach either woman with AJ behind him, all hell was sure to break loose.

Michael turned around on his heel and pointed at AJ. "You need to stay out here." AJ blinked at him and he sighed. "I know, you say you're worried about Uncle Jason…"

"I am worried. We hate each other's guts half the time, but he's still my brother."

"Yeah, great. Wonderful. But, see, the thing is, everybody's all crazy right now, ya know? So, if you came in there with me, fights would probably get started. And I think I saw Grandpa in there, which means more hell breaking loose. Add that in that neither Grandma's in there, and Emily's not in there…"

"You're saying I'm going to cause problems." AJ sighed and shook his head. He ran his hand over his dark blond hair and groaned. "Have a little faith in me, Michael. Despite what Grandfather will tell you, I do know how to behave in public."

"Look, Dad, I know." Michael sighed and ran his hand through his own breezy blond hair. It was a gesture so similar to AJ's that it annoyed his mother to no end, made his sisters laugh, and made his father grin. "It's just a big thing, ya know? And I don't know that everybody'll control their emotions. So, I'm gonna go in there, and you can just… I'll let you know what's going on, okay? I'm not trying to be mean or anything. I just don't wanna cause anymore trouble than what's already going on."

"I can't stand out here forever, Michael," AJ told him. "If Mom or Dad come by…"

"You'll be safe, because, look! Emily and Zander are right there." AJ turned and Michael went rushing through the doors, heading for his mother. His conscience was clear enough. It's not like he had lied or anything. Emily and Zander were headed straight for AJ the second Michael took off.

Inside, Carly's heartbeat was just starting to slow. Sofie and Sage stood on either side, waiting to see what their mother would do. The first thing Carly had noticed was Lorenzo's injured arm. That instantly cleared her thoughts of Jason momentarily from her mind. She touched him gingerly, careful not to hurt him, then instantly started screaming and ranting. They were suing the PCPD, and Alexis had better already be on the job.

"It had all been so simple! Just come to the station to get Jason out. What the hell was Sam even doing there, huh? Now, look at you! You're all… shot! And Jason… Jason's… I had to see it on TV, Lorenzo!"

He only looked at her and waited for her to stop screaming. He knew that he'd never be able to fully break her of her excitement, and he didn't really want to. One of the things that had attracted him to Carly was the fire that blazed within her when someone she loved was in trouble. She felt everything passionately, and she had no problem letting everyone know that.

Jason had left her with him. For two years, he had to hide out, waiting for the heat to cool down over a particularly brutal hit. When Jason left, Carly and Lorenzo could barely stand one another. That didn't matter, though, because he'd known that Lorenzo would take care of both her and Michael. By the time Jason returned, Lorenzo and Carly were engaged, and he was on his way to convincing her that this childish vendetta against a man who had, honestly, done her no wrong needed to be let go. They were a match made in hell for everyone else, but one made in heaven for each other.

"Are you done now?" Lorenzo grinned. Carly growled at him and he only grinned more. "Now, first of all, Sam was there because I called her. Jason was supposed to meet her at the airport when he was brought into the station, and they were supposed to leave as soon as Alexis and I got him out." His grin faltered a bit and he sighed. "And leave her out of this, alright? She's scared and she's worried. So just let her be right now, alright?"

"You…" Her eyes narrowed and she struck out, hitting him in his good shoulder. "I should hurt you for not calling me sooner. The girls saw it on TV, Lorenzo. They saw it before I did and I couldn't shield them from it. And Michael…" Her hand went to her mouth as realization hit. "Oh, my God. So stupid! I didn't even call Michael! He's got to be worried."

"He's right behind you, Carly." Lorenzo reached one arm out and wrapped it around Sofie as she drew in closer on his left. Sage came in at his right, then moved around to the front of him, careful of his injured arm. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned in. Lorenzo kissed either of their head, then looked up at Carly. "Go to Michael and let him know that everything's fine. Jason's in surgery and when I know, you'll know. And… talk to Sam, alright?" He sighed and Carly's frown. "You've been where she is. You know how to handle it. Just… be nice, alright? Jason would want you to be nice."

"Lorenzo… that was low."

He winked at her and grinned. "I know." He moved closer to her, practically dragging the twins with him, and kissed her lightly. "That's why I run this town. Now, go talk to Michael, then talk to Sam. And leave the girls with me. Oh, and watch out for Quartermaines."

Carly groaned. She rolled her eyes at Lorenzo, then turned around to Michael. As she saw AJ standing on the other side of the glass, she grunted. Watch out for Quartermaines, she thought, then grunted again. Carly wrapped her arms around her son then, still staring at AJ, muttered, "Don't I always."


	5. Awakening

A shadow hovering overhead woke Sam. Her eyelids fluttered, then popped open. Carly stood with her arms folded, looking down at her. Sam sighed and pulled herself up straight. As she moved, the blanket covering her slipped to her waist and she looked down at it in confusion. When she fell asleep, there had been nothing there. Just the chair and Jason lying across the room, still asleep.

"Michael brought it in," Carly answered her unspoken question.

Sam nodded and pulled the blanket up. "Thank him for me," she said, twisting in the chair. She stretched her body and the chair groaned beneath her. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep, but her legs ached enough that she thought it had to have been at least an hour. "Did he wake up yet? Did I miss it?"

Carly turned towards the bed and sighed, then turned back. "No, he's still asleep. Monica said he might not wake up tonight, since he wasn't awake when they took him into surgery."

"But… that's normal, right?" Sam straightened her body, then leaned forward. For a second, her elbows dug into her knees, then her arms relaxed and her forearms fell forward, hanging over her knees. "That doesn't mean that he's any worse than they said, does it?"

Carly shook her head. "Monica said he's fine, so I guess that means it's normal."

"Because, I'd hate for people to be lying to me about it, ya know? I mean… I know a lot of people don't like me. Michael tries, and Lorenzo is polite enough because of Jason, and so is Emily, but the Quartermaines absolutely hate me, so I wouldn't put it past any of them to lie to me just to make me look stupid or something."

"Nobody's lying to you, Sam." The sigh that Carly gave was full of exasperation, and Sam wanted to tell her to get out. If she were going to patronize her, then she didn't need to be in there. Didn't she see that she was having enough trouble already? Did she have to add more? "These things, horrible as the situation may be, happen. You've just got to accept it if you're going to be in Jason's life."

"You're telling me to accept something?" Sam snorted a laugh. "You're actually telling me to just let it go. No, you're not setting me up for anything at all."

To say that the women didn't like each other was an understatement. To say that neither knew why that was the case would have been a total fabrication. No matter who else came into their lives, Carly was used to being the most important woman in Jason's life. She was accustomed to his door always being open for her, and while it wasn't completely closed, neither was it wide open. Someone else had become the center of Jason's world, and that made Carly bitter. Jason was her best friend, but he was someone else's, too.

On the other side, Sam would never audibly admit that she felt threatened by Carly. While she had no thoughts of Carly and Jason betraying Lorenzo with any sort of infidelity, Sam knew that the bond the two had was deeper than anything she could hope to have with him. Carly knew this, too, and she made sure to stake her claim as often as possible. Carly didn't want to share, which meant that she would make sure that she didn't have to do it very often.

It all boiled down to the fact that they both wanted him, and neither could completely have him. They tried to get along when Jason was around. Neither wanted to be the reason that he chose the other. Both of them were fully aware that Jason was loyal to a fault, and if either Sam or Carly gave him any reason to believe that one of them was trying to force him in either direction, he would resist. So, they pretended to be amiable when most of the time they just wanted to rip out each other's hair.

Carly sighed. "I've been through it, alright? And yeah, normally, I'm all for getting up in arms and screaming like a maniac. Hell, I walked in here and did exactly that, but at some point, you've just gotta calm down."

"You calmed down because of Lorenzo."

"Yeah, so?" She sighed again. "There's a reason Lorenzo and I are together. There's a reason we work. I'm the crazy one, he's the sane one. Together, we're a normal, average person." Carly shook her head. "But, that's beside the point. The point of this entire thing is that I did eventually calm down."

"Thing is… would you have been able to calm down if it were Lorenzo with his life on the line instead of Jason? No, wait, don't answer that. Because you'd have still had Jason."

"I had Jason the last time I was sitting right where you are. I sat in a chair, blood all over my clothes, just waiting for Lorenzo to wake up. And you know what happened when he woke up? He couldn't see. So I ranted and I raved and I lost my mind, but in the end, it didn't do anyone any good. The girls were just over a year old, plus Michael was almost four… I really had to think about everything. Was this what I wanted for my children? Not to mention the fact I was in the middle of a custody battle with AJ. If things were at their worst, I could have lost Michael and maybe even Lorenzo. But, in the end, I made up my mind. I was scared, but I couldn't live without him. I made my choice, and I don't regret it."

Sam looked at her with unabashed shock. The last time Carly had said that much to her in one sitting, the conversation had been anything but nice. Back then, it had actually been a lecture, one in which Carly made it very clear what she thought of Sam, how little she thought of her feelings for Jason, and what she would do to her if she hurt him. This time, though… this was very nearly a heart-to-heart.

"Why are you telling me this, Carly?"

"Because I know that there's a part of you that's wondering the same thing. You don't have kids to worry about, but there's still yourself. And while you're sitting there, even though you've changed your clothes and washed your hands, you still feel his blood on you. You still feel his heart beating slower while you lean on him, and you're wondering if you can do this again."

Sam sighed and collapsed back in the chair. "Yeah."

"So, I'm telling you this so you can make a decision. You need to decide if you can handle this. If you can, then great. Wonderful. But if you can't, go now. Don't be here when he wakes up, because it'll be a lot harder on him to see you and then actually watch you leave."

"I love him, Carly." Sam stood slowly, gripping the top edge of the blanket. She tossed it into the chair and walked towards the bed. Jason's eyes were still closed, his face slack. She'd have given anything for him to smile at her, to open his blue eyes and let her know that everything was okay and she was doing the right thing. "I know that you and damn near everybody else think I'm wrong for him, but I really love him, and he loves me. I know he makes me happy, I think I make him happy. I mean… he smiles when he looks at me, and that means he's happy, right?"

Sam rested her hands gently on his arm. His skin was warm, but he still wasn't awake. She tossed her head back and looked over her shoulder. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and as much as she wanted to wipe them away, she didn't want to let him go. "I just want him to wake up and look at me, and smile a little, because then I'll know that I make him happy, ya know?"

Carly was quiet for a moment. Her eyes drifted from Sam to Jason, then she stopped. She watched him for a moment, gave a small smile, then turned back to Sam. "Looks like you've made your decision… and have your wish."

Sam blinked at her in confusion. A twitch under her hands made her look to Jason. His head rolled slowly towards her. The tip of his tongue pushed out and he licked his lips. She bent so quickly to kiss him that her hair fell down like a curtain around them. She stood up slowly and almost laughed as she said, "Hi."

Jason's eyelids drooped, then pushed forcefully back open. He swallowed, then murmurred, "Hi." His lips curled up ever so slightly in the corners, and Sam was okay.


	6. Twin Spies

Lorenzo was positive that, though only one side was completely vocal, both girls were planning something. Based on what was not said, he assumed that Sofie's plan would be much more devious, extremely dangerous, and as sinister a plan as a fifteen year old girl could devise.

Looking at the Alcazar twins, most people couldn't tell them apart. Both girls had searched their family's genes until they found bright sunshine hair that hung. Usually, their hair hung straight over their shoulders, but this day, the locks fell in waving tendrils. Both had the same big eyes and wide smile. One was smaller than the other, but not by much, just a slender build to one where the other was more filled out. The major physical difference between them was that, being mirror twins, one was right-handed and the other was left-handed. Even armed with that knowledge, however, most would be unable to tell them apart just by looking into their smiling faces. The true differences in them laid much deeper.

People looking into the situation would say that they each took after a parent. One was always loud and forthcoming with everything. She never let her thoughts stay hidden for too long, especially if she were passionate over something. The other laid in wait, watching and listening, until it was her time to strike. However, their father knew that, as much like Carly as one may have been, the true measure of her attitude was her uncle, Luis. Watching his daughters brought back memories of his childhood for Lorenzo, whether it be switching places with his twin or getting into trouble because Luis was so vocal. They may have been a duplicate of Carly and Lorenzo, but deep down, they were carbon copies of Luis and Lorenzo.

Sage Alcazar was the louder of the two. She felt everything very deeply, and was without the necessary inner catch that stopped her from sharing how she was feeling with anyone, at any given time. The only thing that saved most of her devious plans from failure was the fact that she managed to hold herself in check long enough to tell her ideas only to her brother or sister, as opposed to screaming it out for the world. However, angry as she was at the current time, she couldn't hold back from telling everyone in General Hospital that there was hell to pay for the injuries upon her father and Jason.

Sofie Alcazar, on the other hand, liked to let things sit and marinate. She didn't exactly brood, but she was internal. She felt things just as strongly as her sister, but she didn't feel the need to share her thoughts with others. When they were alone, she would take Sage aside and tell her what had been going on in her mind. At the same time, she would fix the minor quirks in her sister's plans to make it the perfect plot. As stood beside her sister in the hospital, she waited for the proper time because as sure as there would be hell to pay, there was no need to tell everyone right that very minute.

"Sage, would you please stop?" Sofie sighed. "I'm sure there's all sorts of things that you'd like to do, but these people don't need to hear about it."

"Oh yes, they do!" Sage stomped her foot and crossed her arms. She fixed her lips in a harsh purse. "What are the police doing, huh? They're bugging Sam with questions, as though she knows. They're bugging Dad with questions, as though he'd tell them anything."

"And we are doing nothing because there is nothing that we can do." Sofie stared at her sisters with hard eyes. Her nose twitched, and it was enough for Sage to know that they would, indeed, do something. But that something would be later, after they had talked about it. "Now, I really think we should be thinking of Dad right now."

Sage nodded, then turned her head to look around the hospital corridor. "Where's Mom?"

Sofie shrugged. "With Jason. She sent Sam to get something to eat. I'm pretty sure she's trying to talk him into telling her something so she can do the same thing you wanna do."

Sage sighed. "Probably. I mean, she is on the crazy side, and…" She shrugged. "Well, we'll just have to pump out our own information, won't we?"

They both turned towards their father and Lorenzo looked up at them. His cell phone was pressed to his ear, and the conversation had all been one-sided. He sat there, nodding with occasional grunts thrown in, while the person on the other end told him what had been discovered. It was all as had been expected, and as soon as he spoke with Jason, Lorenzo would be making a call to his brother in Central America to see if he came up with anything different.

At the moment, though, calls to Luis would have to wait. In a soft voice, he said, "Keep searching. If you get anything else, call me." Lorenzo hung up and leaned back against his chair. He groaned at the ache in his shoulder, then his eyes narrowed. His daughters were walking towards him and there was no mistaking the look in their eyes. They were up to something, and the idea of their plotting made him grin. They would be very successful in the business world some day… as long as he could keep them out of jail because of their schemes when they were young.

"Have my girls come to finally dote on me?" Lorenzo smirked. "I may not have been hurt as bad as Jason, but I think I deserve a little time with my girls, don't you think?"

"Oh, Daddy." Sofie smiled innocently, batting her eyelashes. She sat down on his left and leaned on his shoulder. "We love you. We just wanted to make sure you got your business finished. We'd hate to interfere."

"Uh huh."

Sofie smiled wider, then sighed as Sage said, "You're so horrible, you know that?" She looked down at her brand name jeans, then to the floor, and growled. "You took the side you can actually lean on and now I gotta sit on the floor."

"Nobody said you had to sit on the floor. You should have just sat down before I did. Is it my fault that I'm the smarter one?"

"You're the evil one, not the smarter one."

"Evil, smarter… it's all the same difference, Sage."

"It is when you're evil."

Lorenzo held back his laughter. They'd gone far too long without an argument. It was only right that they would eventually start at each other. "Sit down, Sage. There's nothing wrong with my lap, _mija_."

Sage stuck her tongue out at Sofie, then grinned brightly. She curled up in the chair, then rested her head against his lap. Lorenzo looked down at Sage, then to his left at Sofie. He knew they were both worried. Their anger covered the fear that they hid deep down. They had been through police harassment and various arrests, but they had been too young to remember the last time that Lorenzo was shot. That time, it was he who laid in the hospital instead of Jason, and they had been under two years old. This time, he wasn't hurt nearly as bad, but they would always remember it. They would know the danger, and he hated that fear within them.

"I want the both of you to listen to me. I'm going to be fine. Jason's fine. This is just a little setback."

"I hardly think you can call this a little setback, Dad."

"Though it doesn't happen very often, Sage has a point."

"And you can shut up."

"You first."

"Girls!" He chuckled a small laugh. "Trust me, this is just a little setback, and it's one that you've got to let me handle. And believe me, I'm sure Jason is telling your mother the same thing. So, if you thought you'd come pump me for information, it's not happening. Now, why don't you two get ready to head back to the penthouse, huh? You've got school tomorrow."

"But… Sofie said we could probably get out of school, because of the trauma, and all."

"And you don't want us to be traumatized, do you, Dad?"

Lorenzo rolled his eyes. "You're going to school. So, go get your mother so we can go home." The girls continued to protest, but they did get up. Each kissed him on the cheek, then walked away sulking. Lorenzo watched them go away, and he knew that nothing had been settled. He made a mental note to talk to Michael and ask him to keep an eye on his sisters. They could very well end themselves up in jail this time, and that was not the place he wanted them to be.


	7. Memories

_She was abruptly woken by harsh movement on the bed, followed by a weight on her legs. She rolled to the side, then back to the center. Her eyes opened and all hse could see was a blur moving back and forth. Clothes fell onto her legs, thrown from the closet and bureau. She looked to the side of the bed and saw a large suitcase, halfway filled._

_"Wha—What are you doing?"_

_"We have to leave. Get up and get your stuff together."_

_"You're kidding, right?"_

_"I wish. In less than twenty-four hours, the PCPD will be busting down the door."_

_"I can't just leave!" She bent forward and fell onto her knees. She crawled over the piles of clothes. "Robin needs me."_

_"I need you, dammit!" He sighed and his body slumped forward. His back bowed and when he looked up he was inches from her face. "I can't stay here. We can come back later, mariposa, but we have to be gone by the time the police arrive."_

_"You talk like it's so easy…" Her hand went to his face and she gently caressed the line of his jaw with her fingertips. She slid her hand upwards and tapped his cheekbone with the pad of her middle finger. "To just pick up and go. Nothing can be that easy."_

_"Anything is that easy. Haven't we proven that already?"_

_She didn't answer him. Instead, her head turned to the side and she whispered, "Stay here. Stay with me."_

_He grabbed her by the wrists so quickly that she barely breathed in that second. In an instant, she was on her back and he hovered over her. Buttons bit into her back and thighs. His shirt gaped open and her eyes focused on his chest, them moved to his face as he spoke. "You want me to go to jail? Did you call 'em on me? A last spiteful act 'cause of what I did?"_

_"You're insane, you know that? Why would I call the cops on you? I'm over it. It happened and now it's over. I'm asking you to stay with me, not go to jail."_

_"Sure."_

_He snorted… and then he kissed her hard enough to bruise._

Brenda Barrett was, at last, completely separated from the life that had caused her so much grief. Well… as much as possible. Each month, ten thousand dollars appeared in the business account for L&B Records. There was nothing she could do to stop it, and she had tried. The only thing she could do was look at her business partner, Lois Cerullo, and shake her head. She had tried, but their benefactor wasn't one to take "leave me alone" very easily.

Luis Alcazar was determined to keep the only connection he had left to Brenda. The way she would explain it, Luis had an issue with possessions. Brenda belonged to him, and he wasn't going to let her go completely, even if he were thousands of miles away in a location only disclosed to his brother. She hadn't heard anything from him since he left, so that was the only explanation she had for it.

She thought that maybe, after the crisis had abated, she would have gone if he'd sent for her. At the time, there was just too much going on. Stone Cates was dying, and there was no way she could leave behind one of her best friends, Robin Scorpio, to run from the law with Luis. At the same time, the record company was taking off, and if she'd have left Lois in a lurch, she'd have never heard the end of it. There was too much, and as much as she loved him, she just couldn't leave.

Stone died. L&B levelled off. The Quartermaines got on her nerves and Robin went off to college. There really wasn't much left for her after a while. That was when she wanted him to send for her. She knew it was selfish. He'd dropped everything and run while she stayed behind, unable to relinquish her life, but she didn't care. Luis knew she was selfish, anyway. But, he didn't send for her, and she had to push her life forward.

_"All you have to do is give him this letter. Don't read it, don't paraphrase it. I know that you know where he is. I know you know how to get in touch with him, even if you don't know exactly where he is. Just give him this, Lorenzo, please."_

_"I'm sorry, Brenda, I can't."_

_"You…" She sighed and closed her eyes. She counted slowly to herself until she reached ten. Then, her eyes opened. "Do you hate me that much, Lorenzo? Do both of you hate me for not going with him?"_

_"Brenda, I don't hate you. I just can't take that. If I take that letter, then the cops will have reason to say I know where he is. They could put me away for aiding and abetting a fugitive."_

_"I won't tell anybody that you took it. And if he gets it and he knows… If he knows what I need him to know, no one will ever find out because I won't be here."_

_"I'm sorry, Brenda."_

_"Sorry… You're sorry." A bark came out of her throat that was a mixture of a laugh and a sob. Her eyes were leaking, but she didn't brush the tears away. "I was here to help you and Robin when Stone died. I watched you cry when your brother wasn't here to see it and when you wouldn't show it to anybody else, not even Lois. I gave up so many friends for him and because of what the two of you did… and now you're sorry. You owe me, Lorenzo. You owe me this one little thing. Just send him this letter. Or tell him to call me because I know… I know! You talk to him, and he asks, and I know you tell him I'm fine. Well, you tell him I'm not fine. And if he says he doesn't care…" _

_Brenda turned away and squeezed her eyes, hoping it would stop the tears from flowing. It only made them fall harder. She turned back to him with her face streaked with mascara. "If he says he doesn't care, then you tell him to stop putting money in the L&B accounts. And you tell him… Tell him to come back and get me!"_

_The envelope crunched as her hands balled up. She beat at Lorenzo's chest and it would have been just like the second time she broke up with Luis… except that Lorenzo grabbed her arms and pulled her close. Luis would have just grabbed her wrists, stepped back and laughed. Some others couldn't tell the Alcazar brothers apart, but she could, and she knew that this person holding her tiny shaking form was not Luis._

_Brenda stepped back and let the envelope drop to the floor between them. "Just give him that letter, Lorenzo. Just tell him that I need him…"_

Brenda shook her head and damned Luis's contributions to her company. She only thought about him when the influx of money came, and it lasted an entire week. The other three out of the month went along with very little thought of Luis Alcazar and how he made her feel.

Maybe she could leave a note with the bank. It had been over four years since he left, and she'd never thought to do that, but now… Now, she figured it was time. She could leave a note to be wired to the source of the other account and tell its owner that she wanted to buy him out. She was sure that she and Lois could handle themselves, and if they needed extra income, she was seeing someone who was more than capable and willing to invest in the music industry.

Jasper "Jax" Jacks was a businessman, and while it was only borderline legitimacy that he could claim, he was still one that Brenda wouldn't have to worry about running off in the middle of the night. He was a corporate raider, not a job that made him very many friends in the professional world, but somehow he had most of the people in Port Charles around his pinky. It was probably because he talked a very nice, very sweet game. He got Brenda Barrett because he played to her need to be taken care of, and that was something Jax did extremely well.

But, Jax wasn't Luis.

Her pen fell from her hand and she held back a scream. Damn him for making her think about him. Damn him for keeping that one little bit of connection that made him haunt her thoughts. Damn him for not coming back to get her when he had the chance, and damn Lorenzo for being so freaking difficult. He could have just told her where he was staying. He could have just sent her to him.

"The hell with it." Brenda picked up the remote control and turned the television on. She wasn't going to get any work done before she had to be at the studio, so there was no point in trying.

The channel played news and, just for a moment, she thought she was seeing a ghost. She thought that in the middle of the falling snow and bad reception, she saw Luis falling to the ground, twisting as a bullet caught him in the shoulder. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Luis is gone," she muttered, then slowly opened her eyes as the reporter started to speak.

"This is footage taken by a group of college students working on a school project. The students just happened to be filming in the direction of the Port Charles Police Department at the time of the shooting. Once again, Lorenzo Alcazar and Jason Morgan were shot late last night outside of the police station. While Mr. Alcazar sustained only minor damage Jason Morgan…"

Brenda turned the television off and let her head fall onto the desk. Her forehead came crashing down on a pile of papers and she sighed. "Luis is gone," she muttered, again, "and in a week, he'll be totally forgotten… all over again."


	8. Selfish Once in a While

"Zander, no… You don't have to go out there. Not now. Not when… Not when we don't know what's going on."

Emily Bowen Quartermaine gripped her boyfriend's hand with both of hers. He pulled from her and each time she reached his fingertips, she quickly scrambled back to his wrist. Maybe, she thought, if she pulled on him long enough, begged hard enough, he would stay with her instead of going out into the streets of Port Charles.

When the danger level rose, those were the times that she regretted begging her adoptive brother to get Zander a job. She had thought that her family would get off of Zander's case if he had a job and showed some kind of initiative. Then they could stop sneaking around. She wouldn't have to use her friends to get some time with him.

The plan might have worked, too, if he'd stayed working at the warehouse. Maybe she should have asked Jason to keep him there. It wasn't fair, to put that kind of demand on him, but she was selfless so often that she deserved the right to be selfish every now and then. However, she was fully aware that Zander needed more than a job lifting crates of coffee beans. He would have worked his way around Jason's protection one way or another. But, had she asked, at least Emily wouldn't have felt quite so much blame. If he got hurt, she wouldn't have to know that it was all her fault.

Zander Smith pulled his hand away again and this time, he stepped far enough away to be just out of her reach. "I have to do go, Emily. It's my job."

"Your job is to take care of me." She didn't pout, but her eyes started to glisten. Her voice raised just a bit, a level below screaming, but above normal speech. "I need you right now. I can't handle everything that's going on and if you go out and get shot… I can't handle that, either."

Zander sighed. "Nothing is gonna happen to me, Em." He walked to her slowly and put a hand against her cheek. "It's not dangerous. And I won't be alone. I'm meeting Lucky."

Emily sighed and rolled her face in his hand. If she didn't want Zander to go out there, she certainly didn't want Lucky out there. Zander may have been the love of her life, but Lucky Spencer was her first great crush. She remembered following him around when she first came to town, hoping and praying that he'd look at her as more than the little sister to be watched over. She wanted to be his girlfriend, and the fact that he'd rather be with Elizabeth Webber had caused her to cry more than once.

She had since moved on from her Spencer crush, but she still cared about him. The only thing she could say about Lucky's involvement with Alcazar's business was that it wasn't her fault. Lucky had his own ties to the Alcazar family, ties that had nothing to do with her and everything to do with his own family. Her father, Luke Spencer, had been best friends with Lorenzo and Luis Alcazar for about a decade. They had been business partners in the past and, for a little while, enemies when it was thought that Lucky had been murdered because of Alcazar's business. When it was revealed that Helena Cassadine had kidnapped Lucky and faked his death, the men had managed to repair their differences. No apologies were given, but an understanding was reached.

Taking Lucky's involvement even further, he was pretty much family where Alcazar was concerned. Carly Alcazar was the long-lost daughter of his Aunt Bobbie, and while his father didn't really care much for Carly, Lucky gave her a chance. Emily often wondered if Lucky were so nice to Carly because he really liked her, or because he knew that he'd lose his job if he were mean. Losing his job meant being pulled back into his father's war with the Cassadines, and considering that the heir to the Cassadine throne was his half-brother, Lucky had no desire to be yanked back into the decades-long feud.

So, Lucky worked for Alcazar. Zander worked for Alcazar. Jason worked for Alcazar. The three people Emily worried about the most were in danger on a daily basis, and one of them was in the hospital. She wanted Zander to come with her to see Jason, to stand behind her and be the rock at her back when she thought she would cry. He'd been with her the night before, had even helped her stop AJ and Carly from fighting, and she wanted him with her again.

"Please, Zander, just a little while longer." Emily lowered her head and closed her eyes. She felt the bump of Zander's forehead landing on the crown of her head. "I know I'm being selfish and I know I'm being a baby, but… Jason could have died, and I don't want that happening to you."

"I won't die, Em, I promise." He turned her head up to him and kissed her lips lightly. "I'm just going off with Lucky to meet with Lorenzo, that's all."

"No, that won't be all. With Jason in the hospital, he'll lean on you and Lucky. He'll give you heavier work and I know what that means. It means you'll be in even more danger than usual, and so, don't tell me that you're meeting with Lorenzo, and that's all, 'cause it's not all."

"Em…" Zander sighed and shook his head. "You knew what I would be getting into when Jason hired me at the warehouse. You knew I wouldn't be able to stay out of this business for long. Business like this is how we met."

She groaned. "Don't remind me."

He chuckled and kissed her again. "You know what I mean. And you know what this means to me… that he's trusting me, that he's giving me more to do. I'm not just the kid that hired on 'cause of Jason's sister. I've proven myself and I'm trusted. If I don't go now…" Zander sighed. "Don't ask me to give this up, Em, because you know I can't do that."

"I know," she said with a sigh. "I just… I'm worried. Everybody's scared and I've got to deal with the family and… I just wish you could be there with me."

"Do you really want me to be there when the old man starts going?"

Emily thought about that for a second. Zander and Edward Quartermaine in the same room, on opposite sides of an argument… that was definitely not something that she truly wanted to see. It would only end in an fight and, as always, she would become the peacemaker. That was her role in the family. She was the one to make everyone back off and stop hurting each other. But, it would have been nice if, for once, someone in the Quartermaine household would do the same for her.

"Fine, you have to go." Emily stepped away from him then turned. She perched on the end of the sofa, and looked around the room. Zander didn't live in a penthouse like Jason, but his apartment was nice enough, and it was more towards his style. "I'll just finish getting ready and head over to the hospital. I'm sure Jason's trying to leave by now, anyway, and it'll take more than Sam to stop him from leaving."

"Em…"

"I'm fine, really. I just had a moment of selfishness. Go, I'll be fine."

Zander looked back at her and she shooed him off with a wave of her hands. He didn't look like he believed her, but he had no choice but to go. Emily watched the door close behind him, then fell backwards with a flop onto the sofa. She looked up at the ceiling, counted to ten, then sighed. "Sometimes, I really wish I were more selfish on a regular basis."


	9. A Disinfectant Reprieve

**_Author's Note: I've changed some things in the Haunted Star history, mostly because I couldn't exactly remember EVERYTHING that went on, and since this is an alternate universe, it didn't have to be completely perfect in regards to what actually happened on the show. So... my explanation of how Sam and Luke came to co-own the Haunted Star is explained in this chapter._**

"Well, it's about time you showed up. I started to think I was finally gonna get to run this place without a cookie's input."

Sam turned slowly towards Luke Spencer, her eyes narrow. Her presence on the Haunted Star was most definitely not her own idea. If she had her way, she would still be at the hospital, sitting at Jason's bedside. The last thing on her mind was taking care of business, especially when that business involved dealing with the town conspiracy theorist.

Jason had insisted, though. He had, in fact, refused to lay still and rest unless Sam left the hospital and got on with her life. Two days in the sterilized hallways of General Hospital were more than enough for her. She had a business to look after, a life outside of the world that Jason lived in, and she had to get back to that. He promised her that as soon as he was healed and business was settled, they'd take that vacation just like they planned.

He also promised that he would stay in bed. Sam wasn't sure how much faith she held in either promise, but the latter was the most dubious. For two days she had pushed him back down onto the bed, insisting that he was in no condition to go out and work. Lorenzo and Carly told him the same thing, and he didn't believe them, either. As far as he was concerned, it was nothing more than a few scratches. Sam didn't exactly call six bullet wounds where three had to be surgically removed a few scratches.

"I am not a cookie." Sam groaned, then walked further into the main casino room. The inside of the boat was a little warmer than the surface level, but it was still cold enough that Sam tightened her arms around herself. The leather of her black jacket squeaked and for a moment, she burrowed her face into her sweater. "And I don't see why we need to meet here, anyway. The ship is docked, the casino's closed for winter and it would be a lot more comfortable to do this at the club."

The cold wasn't the only thing that made the Haunted Star uncomfortable. Aboard this ship was the first time that she encountered Jason Morgan. Back then, everyone wanted their hands on the Haunted Star. The Cassadines claimed that it was their possession. Lorenzo and Luke both wanted it to open a casino. The Quartermaines wanted the money that would be gained by holding the rights to an historical ship. And Sam just wanted to win something, to show that she could change her own luck after failing to destroy the Dead Man's Hand.

Sam's plan had been simple. Scuttle the ship, salvage it, then claim her as her own. Once she was at the bottom of the Atlantic, it was a case of first come, first serve. She had spent her adulthood salvaging scuttle ships and boats. Everyone else would have to find someone to go down and claim her. By the time they found someone to go down there, Sam would already have done the deed and claimed the Haunted Star as her own.

Lorenzo had the same idea, and he was a step ahead of the others. He already had a crew ready to go down for her. All that was necessary was for Jason to go aboard and set the charges. As it happened, he went to scuttle her at the same time as Sam. They also were on the ship at the same time that Helena Cassadine sent her own people to do just that. In the end, they had both saved each other's lives. Jason had put a couple of bullets into Helena's goons before Sam could get shot, and when the bottom of the ship exploded before they could get off, Sam was the one who pulled Jason's unconscious body out of the water.

Luke knocked back three fingers of whiskey, then started to pour again. "It's more private here," he said, leaning against the bar. "Besides, I always have a good time stickin' it to the Ice Queen, and you know, she's gotta be scratchin' her skinless kitty raw over this one."

"Uh huh." Sam sighed and looked around. When the dust had settled, Sam and Luke were left with the claim to the ship. He tried to talk his way into sole ownership and on most, it probably would have worked. Unfortunately, Sam had spent her life bargaining, negotiating and conning people out of what they wanted. She saw Luke's con a mile away, and there was no way she was going to just hand over the Haunted Star. She needed something, and that ship was all that was left. "Ya know, this place changed my life," she said softly.

Luke groaned as he finished his drink and poured another. "Not this again." He grabbed another glass and filled it halfway, then carried it around the bar. He pushed one glass at Sam before crossing to one of the tables and sitting down hard in a chair. "What is it with you dames, huh? Let the past go. It only brings ya down."

Sam snorted a laugh. "This coming from Luke Spencer?" She took a sip of whiskey and looked at him. "You and your Cassadine grudge… You're telling me to let something go."

"Ah, but ya see, darlin', the Cassadines aren't in the past. The Sea Witch is still twistin' her tentacles to get me. And that's all about havin' a good time. What would I do without Helena to play around with? Be bored and listen to Cowboy nag about that half-demon that he calls a brother."

"Uh huh." Sam sat down and rolled her eyes. "Without Helena, you could pay attention to Skye, and I'm sure that'd make her happy."

"Oh, believe me, I know how to make Red happy." Luke winked at her. "You should find out what makes you happy. What makes a dark-haired doll like you twist those lips, huh?"

Sam sighed. "He's in the hospital. Which is where I should be instead of talking to you about a ship that won't even hit the sea and make me any money until the water thaws."

"What you need is a life." He sat his glass down with a thud on the table. "You can sling a good drink or two. How about you pick up the slack at the club for me?"

"Yeah, right. I'm gonna work with you more than I have to." She snickered. "Why is everybody being nice to me all of a sudden? First Carly now you? Am I really that pathetic that I need hand-outs?"

"It's not pity, Sam, it's plain sense. I need somebody seedy to watch over the place when I head out for a little vacation that I like to call Operation Poke Helena With A Cattle Prod." He winked. "And I don't think there's anybody in this place that can run a dive like Luke's as close to how I'd run it."

"You mean keeping it in the red?"

"Exactly. So, whaddya say?"

"I don't know…" She shrugged. That would mean more time away from Jason while he healed. Of course, he'd probably spend most of his time talking business with Lorenzo, anyway. Sam was almost sure that Luke would have asked Lucky if he weren't busy with Lorenzo. But… it was nice to feel useful, to be able to do something that wasn't so directly connected to Jason. The Haunted Star, though it had been mostly her own work, was still connected to Lorenzo through his connections with Luke. He was the silent partner that everyone pretended not to know about. But Luke's… that belonged to Luke, and if she worked there, it was her own spot, her own thing to do. And, on top of it all, she'd be running it. Lorenzo had given The Cellar to Carly. Jason wouldn't have been giving this to Sam.

"Alright," she said, finishing her drink. "You've got a deal. But, do me a favor, alright? Don't bring Helena down on me. It was bad enough the last time I had to deal with her."

"Oh, sugar, you know it's a good time. Rollin' in the muck with the queen of swine."

"For you, maybe. For me…" She shrugged. "It's just another worry that I don't need and believe me. I've got more than enough worries for anybody."


	10. A Thoughtful Return

Luis Alcazar stared out the window of the jet and sighed. In a matter of hours, he would be in Port Charles and everything would be different. If he had his way, he would be able to pick up where he'd left off, but that wasn't possible. Eventually, he might get everything back, but in the beginning… In the beginning, he wouldn't be surprised if she slapped his face when he showed up at her door.

Brenda Barrett had been in the forefront of his thoughts since he left. The last time Luis had seen her face, she was sleeping peacefully. Her head was turned to the side and black hair washed across her face in waves. He resisted the urge to touch her as he slid from the bed. There was no way she would go with him and if he'd done anything to wake her, he probably wouldn't have gotten out of Port Charles in time. Instead of leaving Caracas on his personal jet he would have probably been sitting in Pentonville.

He'd kept an eye on her while he was gone, with spies situated all around town. His brother occasionally sent him reports on Brenda, but he felt that Lorenzo was holding something back. On the surface, she seemed to be fine. She had her record company, her new boyfriend, her friends… Everything should have been find for her and that's what Lorenzo told him, but Luis didn't believe it. He could look at a picture and be able to tell that she wasn't really smiling, that her eyes were holding a dark pain. A pain that he had caused her.

Luis sighed and leaned back in his seat. He liked to believe that his brother would have told him if there were something wrong, but he knew that in the long run, Lorenzo would keep his mouth shut. His twin knew that he was impetuous and didn't think things through. He knew that Luis would have come back too early if he knew that Brenda needed him, which was exactly why he didn't believe when Lorenzo told him that she was fine. She was too fine, too much of the time.

He would see for himself, though, and soon. He would stand at her door and look into her brown eyes and see that she hadn't been alright without him. He'd see that she wished she had left Port Charles with him just as much as he did. He'd see that she had pretended to move on with her life because she didn't know if he'd be coming back, and then she'd realize that what she had with that raiding lothario wasn't anywhere near what they had.

…Or she would slam the door in his face.

Luis groaned and looked out the window again. The jet taxied slowly down the runway and Luis gripped either side of his seatbelt. The jet picked up speed and his head rolled back to the center. He closed his eyes and envisioned Brenda's face, sleeping and peaceful as the last time he had seen her. More peaceful than it would probably be when he finally saw her again.

As much as he missed her, as much as he missed their fights, he knew that Brenda would have to wait. He had more pressing business in Port Charles. By now, whatever evidence the Port Charles authorities had on him would have disappeared. There were other crimes for them to be concerned with that even if they wanted to revisit Luis's case, there was nothing for them to do. Enough time had passed that he could go back to the place that he and his brother had made their home decades before.

In the immediate days since Lorenzo and Jason had been shot outside of the Port Charles Police Department, the Alcazar businesses had been raided in Venezuela and Brazil. Couriers had been exposed and detained by the police. Entire arms shipments had gone missing. Someone was trying to destroy their empire and Lorenzo needed his brother's help. With Jason out of action, even though Zander and Lucky had been promoted, there were things that only an Alcazar could take care of. And as the danger increased, Zander and Lucky would be needed on more important details.

Security needed to be strengthened and Luis expected that, once he arrived, Smith and Spencer would be assigned to security of Lorenzo's family. In their Port Charles organization, the two young men had shown their worthiness and loyalty. Luis couldn't think of anyone else that his brother would have trusted other than Jason Morgan to watch over his family.

The family… Luis had warned Lorenzo in the beginning, when he first found his infatuation with Carly Roberts. Theirs wasn't a business that made for an easy "happy home." They were dangerous and their lives put those around them in danger. They had enough to worry about without the addition of a wife and children. He thought Lorenzo had learned that when his first fiance had been killed, but no. He still let his heart melt, first because of this woman and her son, then Stone Cates, and finally his own twin girls. Luis had tried to warn him over and over again, but of course, Lorenzo had not only refuted his claims but thrown his own hypocrisy in his face.

"_You think to tell me to deny my heart when you've devoted yourself to this woman? You've invested in her endeavors, you've run with her through South America with bullets flying. And you are going to tell me how dangerous it is to love?"_

"_I'm different, Lorenzo. At any minute, I can leave. Yes, I love Brenda. I would kill to keep her. You are not the only one who has been shredded by the love of a woman in the past. But, in the end, if I had to run and I couldn't take her, I would still go. If it were my life or the rest of it with Brenda, I could run. Can you say the same thing? This woman… Her son… You've invested your heart, but could you leave it behind?"_

"_I wouldn't have to. Carly would go with me."_

"_Are you so sure of that? Would she leave her family here? Would she uproot her child and run with you?"_

"_She would go with me."_

"_Would you leave her if she didn't!"_

Lorenzo never answered, and in his silence, Luis knew that he wouldn't. Now, with his settled life, his healed heart, if he had to choose between living his life safely in a country with no extradition treaties or staying behind and going to prison or worse, Lorenzo wouldn't leave. He would go to prison or die before he uprooted his family. The fact that Luis had already proven his point, that he had already made the hard decision was almost enough to make him laugh.

Lorenzo was the Alcazar that most thought to be the sensical one. He thought things through and made wise, well-informed decisions, whereas Luis was more apt to act on impulse. Luis was more spontaneous, more wild with his decisions. Lorenzo was methodical and thought of things on a much grander scale. Luis was concerned about the here and now. And yet, in the end, it had been Luis who did the sensical thing. It was Luis, the one most likely to let his heart lead him into trouble, who had left his heart behind.

The seatbelt light went out and Luis unfastened his belt. Crossing his right leg over his left, he reached out to the side and picked up the in-flight phone. He dialed quickly and waited for the other line to pick up. At his brother's voice, he sighed. "I'm in the air," Luis said. "Did you do what I asked?"

"No, Luis, I didn't." Lorenzo's sigh was audible and the frustration in his brother's voice carried over the distant phone lines to settle in Luis's lap. "I haven't had a conversation with Brenda in over two years. I am not about to have one now, even to let her know that you are coming home. You'll just have to wait and see."

"Dammit, Lorenzo…" Luis groaned. "Fine. I expected you to be a little more helpful."

"You always expect me to be more helpful, and every time, I tell you the same thing."

"You are not the keeper of my personal problems."

"Exactly. I'll see you when you land."

Luis hung up the phone without response and groaned again. He rose his hand and massaged the bridge of his nose. He was weary and beaten, and he'd wasn't even close to Port Charles yet. He could only imagine what would happen when he actually landed and took his first walk around the small port town in years.


	11. Changing of the Guard

"Thank God." Lucky Spencer sighed with relief as he stood from his chair. He looked down the hallway as Zander approached and shook his head. "I thought you'd never show up. Jason's as bad as my old man."

Somehow, Alexis had found a judge that allowed the guard that stood outside of Jason's hospital room. More than likely, it was one of the many on the Alcazar pad; a judge that would easily take the line that Jason's life was in danger and he needed protection. The fact that Lucky didn't exactly hold a bodyguard's license didn't seem to be a big deal, mostly because he was just a fill-in for a few hours.

The three and some odd hours that he'd spent travelling in and out of the room were enough to cause relief that his time was nearly over. He had no personal issues with Jason. Before his accident, he'd been the only true-born Quartermaine that wasn't always working an angle. He was dependable and loyal, but he was also a guy so nice that it was impossible to like him. After the accident, his dependability and loyalty had increased tenfold. He wasn't as nice of a guy as before in that he wasn't overly nice to everyone he met, but neither was he an asshole. He was still a decent person who happened to have an illegal job under his coffee importer cover.

As a patient, he was absolute hell. The second he sent Sam away, he'd become more insistent that he could get out of the hospital. The faith that Lorenzo had in Lucky and Zander didn't seem to transfer as easily to Jason. He felt that he was the only one fully capable of keeping his friend safe. As though he were the only one who could take a bullet or figure out what was going on. More than once, Lucky had been forced to hold his tongue, else he'd have said something that neither man would forget.

"Have you seen the traffic outside?" Zander groaned as he stopped in front of Lucky, the replacement guard at his side. "The snow's really coming down, and plus, Em and I had this thing…"

"Yeah, yeah." Lucky waved it off. Not that he didn't care about Emily. Almost since the moment she came to town, adopted by the Quartermaines, he had looked after her like she was his little sister. At the moment, though, he had more things to worry about than Emily's fears. "In case you hadn't noticed, man, I've been stuck here. Passing along Lorenzo's threats to have Jason strapped to the bed if he didn't stay put."

Zander groaned. He was grateful that he wasn't the one who had to play guard at the door. His relationship with Jason was tentative at best. He thought that the tension between the two had to be directly related to the start of his relationship with Emily. Even Zander would admit that kidnapping her wasn't the best way to start a romance, but he hadn't expected it to blossom into anything. He hadn't expected to fall in love with her, and the shock of all shocks was that she loved him in return.

"Better you than me," Zander muttered.

"No. Better Joe than either of us." Lucky looked at the new guard and smirked. "Keep an eye on him, man. He'll get outta bed and before ya know it, he's got his jacket on thinkin' he's gonna leave the hospital in his gown or something. If he tries to get out of bed, tell him that Lorenzo'll have Monica tie him down. That usually works." He ducked his head in the room to find Jason sitting up and groaned.

Jason looked up at him. "What?"

"Lay down before you're strapped down." He rolled his eyes. "Joe's gonna be outside the door. I'm going off with Zander. We'll check in on Sam over at Dad's club, then we've got business."

Jason groaned as he laid back slowly, his hand touching his stomach. "Fine."

Lucky shook his head and closed the door. He turned back to Zander and said, "The guy's insane, but at least he'll go to the hospital. Last time Dad got shot, we had to take care of him at home."

"Yeah, well, be glad you've never been there." Zander turned. He and Lucky started down the corridor, heading for the exit. They passed the nurse's station and waited at the elevator for the doors to open. "I've been shot, and believe me, you don't wanna have them digging bullets out of you."

"What can I say?" Lucky winked. "I'm a lucky sorta guy." He laughed shortly, then leaned against the wall. "I tend to get down before the bullets start firing. You guys should give it a try some time. It's an easier way to protect whoever you're with."

"Thanks for the information that I already had." Zander rolled his eyes. "You're extremely full of shit." When Lucky only laughed at him, Zander sighed. He stood from the wall he'd been leaning against and turned towards the elevator doors. A few more seconds and the doors opened. He stepped through, waited for Lucky, then hit the button for the garage.

Standing inside of the elevator, Lucky leaned against the back wall. He ran a hand through his chocolate hair. The ends hung to his chin, moving shakily around his face. "Think we should have told Jason that Luis was on his way back to town?"

Zander turned quickly to him and shook his head violently. "Not a chance in hell." Neither man thought Jason would be upset over it. He wasn't as close with Luis as he was with Lorenzo, but he respected him all the same. However, considering the conditions under which Luis first left Port Charles, Jason would have been even harder to keep in bed. He would have insisted that he be the one to pick him up at the airport. "It's bad enough as it is."

"True. But, he's gonna be pissed as hell that nobody told him ahead of time." Lucky shrugged. "Then again, it's not our job to tell Jason everything. Lorenzo will tell him when he wants him to know."

"And until then, we just get the joy of babysitting."

"And fact-finding, my friend. Don't forget the fact-finding." He threw an arm around Zander's shoulder and smirked. "Remember, we're the ones about to get the name, and by the time Luis lands in Port Charles, we'll be able to tell the Alcazars just who the guy is that's trying to horn in on their territory."


	12. Don't leave me out

"Are you done threatening me, yet?" Jason stared at Lorenzo with cold blue eyes. "Because if you are, you can start telling me the truth about what's going on. I never thought you'd leave me out in the cold, Lorenzo."

Lorenzo sighed and leaned back in the chair he had pulled up beside Jason's bed. He didn't like leaving Jason out of anything, but he knew that if he'd told him everything right away, he would have gotten out of the bed and probably aggravated his injuries. He would have proclaimed himself the Alcazar family protector and done whatever he deemed necessary to keep them safe, even if that meant getting himself killed.

Next to Luis, Lorenzo considered Jason to be his best friend. If it weren't for Jason, he wouldn't have met Carly and he wouldn't have two beautiful daughters. He owed his life to Jason in every sense of the world and he trusted him as much as a man in his position could trust anyone.

When Luis left town, Jason became his right hand in Port Charles. During Luis's time in South America, Jason had become Lorenzo's brother. His twin's return wouldn't change that. He would always have a kindred with Jason Morgan, no matter who came to town or what was going on. It was that kinship that forced Lorenzo to keep Jason in the hospital, to make sure that he was healed before he took up his gun in defense of him again. It was the least he could do for the multitude of bullets that Jason had taken for him in the past few years.

"I'm not leaving you out, Jason," Lorenzo said with a sigh. "I'm trying to stop you from doing anymore damage to yourself."

"Anymore damage…" Jason scoffed. "You think threats of restraints are going to stop me from doing more damage. I'm fine, Lorenzo." He sat up further in the bed. His movements were slow and his hand hovered just over his stomach. He held back a groan, then let his body settle into the bed. "See? Fine."

"Bend forward and touch your toes."

Jason's eyes went wide, then fell back into slits. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "That's not fair, Lorenzo." Jason groaned and closed his eyes. He took in another deep breath and tried to force his body to relax with his exhale. He slowly opened his eyes and let his head roll to the side. "My job is to make sure everybody is safe, and I can't do that from this hospital bed."

"Jason, you're not just…" He paused and shook his head. In the privacy of his home, he might have said something specific, but the hospital was too out in the open. "You're a lot more valuable than to just take care of things like that."

"I'm not valuable for anything laying in the hospital. Especially when you're hiding things from me. Don't you think I deserve to know what's going on?"

"Jason…" Lorenzo sighed. "I came here to tell you what's going on, but you know I can't say everything until we're some place safe. But right now, I can say this." He sighed again. "Luis is on his way back to town."

Again, Jason was left to stare at his business parter and friend in surprise. The last he'd heard, Luis had made no plans to return to Port Charles, a decision that Jason would have thought had something to do with Brenda Barrett. Besides that, though, there was the fact that the police were watching every Alcazar movement. Yes, Jason had destroyed all evidence against Luis when he fled town, but there was still the possibility that they would try to bring him in for evading arrest the first time around.

"Does Alexis know?" Jason turned to the side and groaned. "She's got to be ready if they try to pick him up when he gets here."

"She's already taken care of that, and from what I hear, she had a hell of a time unravelling the noose Lansing thought he'd have around my brother's neck." Lorenzo smirked and snorted a short laugh. "If things keep going with her and Lansing, he may just have to recuse himself from every case that has anything to do with us."

Jason attempted a shrug, but his body was too stiff to complete the motion without pain. At the moment, he could care less about Alexis's involvement with the District Attorney. "How did Ric know about this before I did?"

"Everything is not a conspiracy to keep you out of the loop, Jason," Lorenzo said with a sigh. "The fact that she went to have the arrest warrant invalidated was enough for Lansing to realize that Luis was on his way back into town."

Jason was quiet for a few minutes. There were things that needed to be done. If Luis were returning to Port Charles, that meant that this whole thing was much more complicated than a random botched hit. More was going on that he had yet to be told, and in the interim of knowledge, he was already thinking about what needed to be done. Extra guards needed to be put on Carly and the kids. Sam was going to have to adjust her come and go life to know the fear. Someone from their camp was going to have to actually talk to Brenda about what was going on because, with Luis back in town, she would certainly become a probable target. There was no way that Luis would come back and not see her.

"There's more, Lorenzo, I know it." Jason looked at him and sighed. He knew that people thought of him as a robot, void of emotion, but Lorenzo knew better. Jason let the lines of his face curve and form until every emotion of worry, love and desperation detailed his visage. "Luis wouldn't be coming back if there weren't more to it than just the shooting."

"Other things have happened, Jason. Things that I can't talk about here. Things that we can only talk about when we're in a secure place."

"You've gotta get me outta here, Lorenzo. I can't… I can't let Sam go back to the penthouse alone, even with all of you across the hall. She doesn't really trust anybody but me to keep her safe. She doesn't think any of you care enough, that she…" As Jason became more excited, he tried to move and was stopped when pain crawled across his stomach. He let himself flop back on the bed. "…she's not important enough to the rest of you. I have to be there."

"I'm watching her, Jason, you know that." Lorenzo sighed and stood from the chair. "I've got guards on her and I've explained to her that she needs to keep a low profile right now. She goes from the penthouse to Luke's, and you know she's safe there. And Lucky checks in on her."

"Guards and Lucky aren't me!" Jason's eyes closed as his head rose and fell back hard onto the pillow. His breathing was soft and measured. He let his eyes reopen and looked up at Lorenzo. "Just tell me this, and be honest with me."

"I'm always honest with you. I just don't always tell you right away."

"Well, tell me now. Is there a war coming to Port Charles, Lorenzo?"

He was quiet and for a moment, it seemed that he wouldn't answer. He turned away from the bed and took a few steps towards the door. Lorenzo stopped at the foot of the bed, then turned back to Jason. "Yeah, Jas, I think there is."

"Then, please, Lorenzo. For Sam's sake. For Carly's and the girls and Michael's… For your sake and Luis's. Get me out of here, Lorenzo, and get me out of here soon."


	13. Ominous Dreams

Someone was calling her name and, lost in a daze of ominous memories, Brenda had no idea who it was. Maybe if she could remember where in the hell she was, she could catch a clue. It was dark and there was a chill in the air that made her cheek tingle. However, the rest of her body was so uniformly warm that the only reasonable deduction was that she was in the bed. Knowing that made her original inquiry perfectly clear.

Jasper Jacks touched her cheek, a soft graze just below the bone. Brenda rolled her head in his direction and murmurred. The blankets fell from her shoulders, cotton sheets sliding thickly over her skin. Jax spoke her name again and it was a wonder how she could be so lost in anything as to not know she was beside her muscular blond Aussie.

"I wondered if waking you were a good thing or bad."

She grinned and gave a low moan. "And what did you decide?"

"I think…" Jax pressed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss. With their lips touching, he grinned and said, "…it can be a very, very good thing."

Jax pressed her down against the bed. The side of his dimpled shoulder brushed her face as she laid back. He kissed her again, harder and with greater passion this time. Brenda's arms wrapped around him. She threw her right leg over his lower back, then pushed him to the side.

Their bodies rolled and stopped with Brenda on top. She looked down at Jax and for a second, wondered why men with light eyes attracted her so easily. From a high school crush on Jason Quartermaine through to the present, eyes that contrasted with her dark brown orbs had managed to send her into a frenzy.

Her hair fell into her face and she pushed one side behind her ear. She pressed down and kissed him lightly, then asked, "Why did you wake me?" She nuzzled his neck and muttered, "Besides the obvious, of course."

Jax chuckled at the tickle in his neck. He ran his middle finger along the top of her spine, just below the nape of her neck. "You were dreaming and it didn't see the sort of thing a beauty such as you should have in her head." And as he spoke, Brenda's body went rigid.

_She crawled along the floor of the small apartment, huddled against herself. She had taken the time to put on her robe and it stuck to her freshly showered skin in wet patches. Her forehead was still smudged with blood. She shook violently and hertremorshad nothing to do with the cool air or her wet skin. She was afraid, and though the voices in her home were familiar, they still made her want to hide in a corner._

_Brenda stopped at the edge of the bathroom and clutched the door frame. Shaking and crying, she peeked out into the bedroom. There were police, but they had mostly trickled out. She could hear Benny, distinctly, and she thought she heard Lorenzo, but the one voice she didn't hear was Luis._

_In her present state, afraid and confused, she fell into laughter at the idea that she could tell the voices apart. In the past, she had mistaken one on the telephone for the other. With blood rushing in her head, through the pounding in her ears, she could tell that the Alcazar that spoke loudly, moving police out of his brother's apartment, was not the Alcazar that should have been there. He wasn't the Alcazar that she needed._

_And then, suddenly, he was there. She heard him call out to her, his voice growing louder as he drew closer, but she couldn't move. She held onto the side of the door, crying and wondering why no one had yet said anything to her. She was the one at home when the shooting happened. She was the one who could have died. It was possible that Lorenzo had kept them from her, but if he had, she didn't remember it. She only remembered seeing no one until Luis was suddenly in front of her face._

_He grabbed her arms and pulled her from the floor. She jerked away from him, but he wouldn't let her go. She screamed at him. "They could have killed me!" Her body flailed and gyrated in a rhythm that couldn't be matched by the most barbaric and passionate sexual rites. "I was in the shower, Luis! The shower! And you weren't even here!"_

"_Brenda!" He jerked her hard and pulled her close to him. She still fought, but his arms stayed wrapped tightly around her. "I'm sorry, mariposa, but I'm here. Just… stop crying!" _

_Luis alternated between screaming and muttering soft, Spanish words of comfort. She had never known him to be particularly soft, but at the time, it meant a lot to her that he could at least try. It meant that he cared, and if he cared, then someone was going to pay. Unfortunately, as she huddled against him, they would pay too late for her to avoid being traumatized._

"Brenda?"

She shook her head and looked down at Jax. She ran her hand down the side of his face and smiled softly. There were plenty of things she had to worry about with Jax. Whether he would have to go off on a moment's notice to steal a company out from under some poor, unsuspecting tycoon. If his jealousy would flare when they ran into Lorenzo in public and, just for a moment, Brenda was thrown back by his face and wanted him to be Luis. Whether jetlag would be an issue or not because he had taken her off to some distant locale for lunch. However, the one thing she knew she would never have to worry about was being shot at while she tried to take a shower. Or gunfire coming her way at all.

Jax was the safe one. He was the resident knight in shining armor, though sometimes Brenda thought his armor to be somewhat tarnished. He had, after all, abandoned more than one woman, claiming that as much as he cared for them, Brenda was the one he loved. He would drop anyone when he knew her to be available. Jax would never admit that he was as dangerous to the heart as those he condemned, but she knew the truth. But, since she was the one that he always came for, it didn't really have an effect on her. It was selfish, she knew, but it was also the truth. She never had to worry about Jax leaving her behind with only a note and one last night of lovemaking to remember him by.

Brenda let her muscles relax, then sag. She lowered herself until she laid prone atop Jax's body. She kissed his lips, then moved down enough to plant her lips against his chest. She rested her cheek against his chest and Jax ran a finger along her cheek. "Brenda?"

"Hm?"

"That dream… Is it something we need to talk about?"

She sat up, propping her chin up on his chest. Brenda reached up and grabbed either side of his face, her fingers splayed wide. She used his head as a buoy to pull herself to the surface. "No," she whispered. "We don't need to talk about it." She kissed him softly and let him roll her over onto her back.

Jax was most definitely not Luis, and right then, she could say that it was a good thing. It was a safe thing. But, she couldn't help but worry as she thought more and more about her South American lover, if she would do to Jax what he did to so many others should Luis ever return to Port Charles. And then, she put that out of her mind, because if he hadn't come back by now, he wasn't coming back at all.


	14. War on the Horizon

"His name is Sonny Corinthos." Lucky leaned against the right end of the fireplace. He turned to the side and looked at Zander. He nodded and Lucky turned back to the others. "His business has been mostly based out of Puerto Rico, working with the Riviera family, though their operation does stretch down into the farther regions of South America ." 

"From what we've found out," Zander said, "he deals mostly in drugs. The heavier ones like cocaine and heroine. He's also gotten his hand into the meth line, and that's what he wants to boom all over Port Charles. From here, he can spread out into other areas of the state, then outward from there." 

"He's got some people at the border that are causing issues with the pot getting in from Mexico ," Lucky said, "but even with what he's stopping, that's not the big deal. The major issue is that he's ambushing the gun shipments on their way out of Venezuela . That's our big money issue." 

"Our overall issue," Zander told them, "is that he knows we won't let the harder stuff hit the streets here without a fight. The meth is already starting to spread and we know of one meth lab he's got not too far off the docks. It's not big, but it's growing. We don't do guns out of Port Charles, but we do our major pot and X dealings out of here, and if he takes us out of the way, he's got a clear path to move into other territories." 

Their audience was a captive one. Jason laid across the leather sofa, his head propped up on the arm. He'd been forced to forego his usual attire of jeans because of the wounds on his abdomen and was dressed in a loose pair of pajama bottoms. His hand rested under his black t-shirt, sitting lightly over his bandages. Lorenzo had finally managed to get him released from the hospital and he had come straight to the penthouse for the meeting. 

Luis lounged in a large black leather chair, his arms thrown over either side. He was dressed in all black, from his suit and open collared shirt to his shining shoes. His hand ran over his short black hair, and the spiky ends prickled his palm. The second he stepped off the jet, with Alexis Davis waiting in a dark limousine, he knew that there would be no stop-off visits. The first thing in Port Charles, first thing in the morning, was to take care of business. 

Lorenzo stood behind his brother, matching in apparel but not in hair. He and Luis had always had different styles, and it wasn't very much work to separate themselves. However, it appeared that Luis's time in Caracas had relaxed him enough that he'd suddenly adapted his twin's style. Standing together, the fact that Lorenzo had grown his hair out was probably the only way they could be told apart. At least until Luis went back to his suits and ties. 

Except for the five businessman, the penthouse was empty. Carly was at The Cellar doing inventory. It wasn't the usual day for it, but Lorenzo needed her out of the house, otherwise, she would stick her nose where it didn't belong. The girls and Michael were at school and, hopefully, by the time they got home, the heavier business would be taken care of. Sofie and Sage didn't even know that their uncle was coming back to town, and they would surely want to spend some time with him. Lorenzo made a mental note to remind Luis just how much like their mother his daughters were. 

"First order of business is to get rid of that meth lab." Lorenzo walked around the side of his brother's chair and stopped near Jason's head. He looked down to Luis and said, "And no, we're not blowing it up." Luis shrugged, and it was obvious that would have been his course of action. He turned back around. "Zander, have someone make an anonymous tip to the PCPD. Let them know where it is, and that's all." 

"Is Corinthos actually in town?" Luis asked. He sat up straight, then leaned forward in his seat. His forearms rested on his thighs and his hands fell inward at the knee. "Has he actually arrived in Port Charles?" 

"He's been here for about a month," Lucky said. "He's been hiding, but it's been harder for him to do that since Jason and Lorenzo were shot." At mention of their wounds, Jason groaned and Lorenzo's eyes passed over his slung arm. "We do know that it wasn't Corinthos himself that did the hit. We don't know who it was, yet, but we're working on that." 

"Let me know when you find out." Jason tried to sit up but a glare from Lorenzo made him stop. He sighed and closed his eyes. "We need to boost security and check out our own people. Make sure everybody is on our side." 

"We've already started that," Lorenzo told him. 

"And I brought reliable people with me from South America ." Luis looked to Jason. The two didn't have as easy a dialogue as Jason and Lorenzo. Most of their business with one another had been conducted over the telephone. Luis trusted his brother's judgment and knew that he wouldn't have put Jason in so high a place of power if he didn't have faith in him, but it still stood that he hadn't had much time working with Jason before he had to make his quick exit and they didn't really know one another. "I've got guards." 

"No." Jason's voice was even and finite. He felt Luis's eyes on him and looked at him. "I'm sure your guys are fine, but they don't know the town. If something happens, you need to know the quickest way out and that means you get Lucky." 

"Excuse me?" Lucky gave a quick shake of his head and looked at Jason. "I mean… He gets me?" 

"You know the town. You know the routes. Luke's taught you how to get in and out of this city without a problem."

Both Lucky and Luis turned to Lorenzo and he shrugged. There were enough troubles outside that he wasn't about to get in the middle of something within his own organization. "Jason's in charge of security. That's been his area for years, and it's still his area. If he says that you're guarding Luis, Lucky, then you're guarding Luis." 

Silence floated through the penthouse for a couple of minutes, then Jason grunted. He looked at Zander. "Until I go through and check out everybody, you're on Carly. Right now, the only others I trust are Joe and Max. Joe gets the girls, Max gets Lorenzo. I want Luis's people here and at the warehouse. Those are the places more likely to get hit. Corinthos will come after us directly before he goes after the people close to us, we've seen that already." 

"And Sam?" Zander asked. 

"I watch Sam." 

"Jason, you're not capable of guarding her every second of every day." Lorenzo sighed. "Put one of Luis's men on Sam until you're healed." 

"I can't. She won't trust him, and if she doesn't trust him, she'll shake him. She's only going from here to Luke's and back. I'll explain to her that extended trips are on hold until this is all taken care of." 

Lorenzo sighed. He could have argued, but if he had learned anything about Jason in their time together, it was that he wouldn't let go of something if he felt that he was right. Plus, he was the only one who really knew Sam McCall. Not that he hadn't tried to get to know her. She just seemed very cautious and wary of most people. She'd been a formidable opponent in the hunt for the Haunted Star and he'd had her investigated when she came into Jason's life, but other than that, she was a bit of a mystery. 

"Fine, but you let her know the dangers, Jason." 

"Just make sure Carly knows," Luis said with a grunt. "We don't need her dragging Zander all around town on her own private missions." 

Lorenzo looked at him and narrowed his eyes. "We'll talk about any private missions later." He sighed and looked at Jason. "Go home, Jase. Sam doesn't even know that you're out of the hospital, and if she heads over there to find you gone, she's going to have a fit." 

Just as Lorenzo knew when not to argue, so did Jason. He groaned and slowly pushed himself up from the sofa. After a few short words, Zander moved to help him across the hall. He had to find Carly at The Cellar, anyway, so it was his excuse for the aid. Jason wouldn't take help from very many, but if it were disguised as a quick means to an end, then he couldn't argue. 

Luis, Lorenzo and Lucky were left in the penthouse. Lucky stayed beside the fireplace and Lorenzo sat down on the vacated sofa. He looked at his brother and sighed. The fact that he hadn't said much during the meeting, coupled with the easy acceptance of Jason's security measures let Lorenzo know that Luis wasn't thinking about business like he should have been. 

"Go see her, Luis." 

He looked at his brother and groaned. "We've got things to do, Lorenzo. More important things." 

"Things that won't get done unless you get her out of your head, and that won't happen unless you go see her. You need to see that she's fine and she's got her life, so go do it, already." He looked over to Lucky and sighed. "Take him to L&B, then bring him back here. We've got things to do." Lorenzo smirked. "And don't let him lose his mind, huh? Guard more than the body." 

Lucky rolled his eyes and headed towards the door, grabbing his jacket off the back of the sofa. "Keep an Alcazar from losing his mind… Man, you sure do ask a lot. And to think, I thought this would be easier than workin' for my old man."


	15. Reason for Home

The door opened seconds before Jason's hand touched the knob. He leaned against the wall with Zander holding him up. He groaned and his eyes closed. He could feel at least one of his wounds starting to ooze. Blood trickled down his stomach and would have been visible had he worn a white t-shirt. Trying to ignore the pain in his stomach and the shocked stare that came from inside the penthouse, he turned to Zander and said, "When you go to Carly, have her call the school and let the girls and Michael know that Joe's gonna follow 'em home from school."

Zander nodded, his head straight towards Sam. She stood with her jacket over her arm. She held black leather gloves in her hands. She had been stopped mid-stride when she saw Jason standing there and her knees started to buckle as they tried to hold her stance. Zander couldn't tell if she was going to scream or cry, but either choice wasn't one he particularly wanted to be there for.

"Can I, uh, get him inside?"

Sam blinked. Her eyes had been focused solely on Jason with the shadows of tunnel vision. Her mouth opened and closed, unable to find words to say to Zander. She turned back to Jason and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Sam…"

"No. Don't Sam me. I was on my way to the hospital to see you, but you're standing here. And…. I know you're not healed because your injuries don't heal that fast." Her hand went to her forehead, hovering for a second before sliding into her hair. She gripped a handful of hair and shook her head. "You're supposed to be in the hospital."

"Sam, please…"

"Does Lorenzo know you're here?" She turned to Zander. "Does Lorenzo know he's out of the hospital?"

Zander answered, "Lorenzo got him released."

"Great." She groaned and rolled her eyes. She wouldn't say it out loud, but in her mind, she was wondering just how much Lorenzo really cared about Jason if he would let him leave the hospital. How much did he really care if he would put the needs of his own business and family above Jason's health?

She shook her head and stepped forward. Jason stood up and Sam slid in on the side of him, putting his arm over her shoulders. "Zander, help me get him upstairs." She sighed as they walked him inside. Sam kicked the door closed behind them, then headed up the stairs and around the corner.

Once Jason was on the bed, Zander took his exit quickly, leaving Sam and Jason alone. Sam watched with mixed emotions as Jason twisted on the bed. Part of her wanted to scream at him for being so stupid, for being loyal well beyond the call of duty. She wanted to tell him that it was his own fault that he was in pain and it served him right for leaving the hospital. And yet, another part of her just wanted to cry. The skin around his eyes was red and thick with creases from a strain that she attributed to him being too manly to cry. His usually crystalline eyes were dark, almost gray with the weight of his pain. His lips were parted and shallow breaths pushed past them. She wanted to hold him and make everything better.

"Don't…" Jason groaned and pushed himself up on the bed until his head was at the top of the pillows. "Don't be mad at Lorenzo. I made him get me out."

"You made him." She snorted. "You made Lorenzo Alcazar do something. Nobody makes Lorenzo Alcazar do anything he doesn't want to, not even Carly. So, don't you lay there and tell me not to be mad at him."

"You don't understand." His body lolled to the side and the bottom of his shirt rose. He flattened his hand to his stomach and felt blood oozing around his fingers. "I couldn't stay there. It's too dangerous out here."

"The only danger out here is that you'll hurt yourself even more." Sam sighed. She saw the blood and turned on her heel without a word. Stomping into the bathroom, she was grateful that they kept a steady supply of gauze. She wet a towel, grabbed some antiseptic and a handful of individually wrapped gauze pads, and went back into the bedroom.

She didn't say anything as she rose his shirt. Blood seeped through the individual bandages that decorated his stomach and chest, though to her surprise, the biggest of his scars was still intact. There was no blood coming from the scar that marked where doctors had to surgically remove the bullets in his side.

Sam focused on the task at hand, removing the bandages and cleaning his wounds. So many people said that there was nothing she could do for him, that she was just using Jason because he would do anything for her. At times, she even wondered about her own worth to Jason. Once, Lorenzo had told her that the love she had for Jason was what kept him going in their dark world, similar to what Carly's love did for him, but she hadn't been able to buy that. In the end, she was still living off of him, living in his home and hardly contributing anything. Now, though, with Jason in trouble, she could take care of him. She could tend to his wounds and tell him how stupid it was for him to be out of the hospital. There was something she could do for him besides love him.

"You should really be in the hospital," she muttered. Hair that had previously been tucked behind her ear fell into her face. She shook her head, unwilling to contaminate her hands by pushing the hair back, and sighed. "And you should have told me that you were out." She taped one piece of gauze in place and moved to another leaking wound. "I know that you have to help Lorenzo and you want to be there for him, but this… Jason, this is serious. You could get an infection or something."

"I didn't leave the hospital for Lorenzo." His voice was strained. He groaned lightly but didn't move. He looked down at Sam, and reached out, trying to push her hair back. His fingertips touched her bangs and was only able to slightly push it back. The hair fell right back into her face. "I left for you."

Sam's motions came to a slow halt. She looked up at Jason and blew at the hair in her face. "You…"

"It's dangerous, Sam. It's so dangerous that Luis came back to town, and I knew…" He sucked in a hard line of hair through his teeth, then slowly let it out as the moment of pain subsided. "I knew," he went on, "that you wouldn't trust anybody else. You… You need me and I can't not be here when you need me."

"Jason…" She put her head down quickly, almost ashamed that she was so needy that he would endanger his own health for her. She studiously cleaned and rebandaged the last of his wounds, then lowered his shirt back down. Sam moved to the side and crawled up until she was perched beside his head. He rolled his head to look at her as she said, "I'm not that important. Not so much that you can do… this…"

"You are important." Weakly, he reached out and this time, he was able to push her hair back. He let his arm drop and his hand landed on top of her blood-spotted hand. "You're important to me. I can't stay there, knowing you could get hurt. Lorenzo knows this isn't just about him, it's not about the business. It's about you, Sam."

"I don't want it to be about me. I…" She paused as tears started to fall down her cheeks. She went to wipe it away, then realized there was blood on her hands and stopped. Jason wiped them away for her. When she started talking again, her voice was thick with emotion. "I want you to be alright. I can take care of myself as long as you're okay. I mean… I sat there, and I cried and it was so pathetic, but I cried until I knew you were okay. And, I don't wanna cry like that anymore."

"I don't want you to cry."

"Then go back to the hospital."

"I can't," he said softly. "I can't trust your life to someone else. I don't trust anyone else to keep you safe, and I can't live like that."

"You can't even get around, Jason."

"I don't have to. I told Lorenzo when he took me out of the hospital that I'd do what I had to do here. I'm strategy and security, Sam. I can do that from this bed, and Lorenzo understands. Luis… He understands. He may not like it, but he understands. So, just…" He took hold of her head and brought her down for a soft kiss. "So, just let it drop, okay? I've been shot before. I'll be fine."

"You've been shot before, but I haven't seen you shot before." She sat up and shook her head. "And you… you're in pain, so, um, I'll call Monica or something and…"

"I've got medication. I left it across the hall."

"Then, I'll go get it." She climbed off the bed and turned away from him. She was still crying, and she hated anyone to see her cry, especially Jason. It made her look weak, and he loved her because she wasn't weak. They fit together because she wasn't a damsel in distress. Though, watching him in pain, seeing the ache in his eyes, her felt like it would stop beating.

Sam went into the bathroom and washed her hands. She looked in the mirror and the skin around her eyes was as dark as Jason's. She threw water on her face, glad that she'd been in too much of a rush to get to the hospital to put on make-up, then looked up. She still looked bad, but at least when she dried her face, the wetness of tears was gone.

She went back into the bedroom and leaned against the wall just outside of the bathroom. "I'll go and get your medicine and then…"

"Then just… lay here with me, Sam. I miss your head on my shoulder.

She sniffed and forced out a short laugh. "You're gonna make me cry again." She ran her hands through her hair then stood up straight. "I'll just get that from Lorenzo and come back."

"And don't yell at him. And, I'm begging you, don't ask him to send me back. He didn't want to get me out in the first place, and if you ask him, if you tell him that I'm bleeding he'll make me go back. One person already turned on me where Lorenzo was concerned, Sam. Don't do it to me again."

"I'd never turn on you, Jason. No matter who it was concerned." She sighed and walked to the door. "Just, don't move. Okay? I'll come back and lay with you because I missed laying next to you. But, you've got to promise me that you won't move until I get back."

"I promise."

She looked at him and for the first time, actually believed that he would keep that promise. It wasn't that Jason was in the game of breaking his promises to her. Enough people had done that in the past that she knew an honest man when she saw one. She also knew that it was impossible for Jason to lie, which was why she had him make the promise. If he knew he couldn't keep it, he wouldn't have made it. Sam just worried that it would be like the hospital. Try as he might, there were just some promises that were impossible to keep. But this one wasn't one of them, because he had what he wanted and he was where he wanted to be. And the fact that the place he wanted to be was with her made the situation just a little better.


	16. Face to Face

"I'm sorry, but you can't go in there! She's got…" The young woman stopped as the door opened and squeezed inside. "I'm sorry, Ms. Barrett, but he wouldn't listen. I told him that you were seeing someone."

"It's fine, Lola," Brenda said with a nod. "I'll handle this." Lola left the office, and Brenda looked up at the man standing in front of her. "I don't know why you're here, Lorenzo. I told you the last time I saw you that I had nothing to say to you." She turned away and looked to the young woman seated in front of her desk.

Cassandra Fowler looked behind her with wide eyes that Brenda could understand. It wasn't often that most people experienced the intrusion of a mobster and his bodyguard. She brushed her flaming hair out of her face and turned back to Brenda. "Maybe I should come back later. I, uh… I've got an exam tomorrow that I should really be studying for and…"

"And that won't be necessary because Mr. Alcazar is leaving." Brenda stood up and leaned forward. Her hands planted firmly on the desktop blotter, balancing herself. She looked past him to Lucky, assuming that Lorenzo had picked up a replacement since Jason had been shot, and shrugged. She noticed that his eyes were on the newest L&B musical acquisition and made a mental note to warn the young PCU student against the dangers of someone like Lucky Spencer.

She turned back to her intruder and he was smirking. The slight curve of his lips led her eyes to travel up a little farther, until she looked into his eyes. There was something… wrong about this. In the split second that it took her to look from his lips to his eyes, she had a sudden rush of information flow through her mind.

First, Lorenzo always stood tall and the man standing in front of her slouched a bit, leaning back at the small of his back. His hands were shoved deep in his pockets. The ensemble was completely Lorenzo, but the stature and the closer cropped hair screamed anything but. There was a twinkle in his eyes, one that had never been in Lorenzo's when he looked at her. A hint of amusement at her frustration that Lorenzo would never feel, and if he did, he would never have shown it.

Brenda walked around the desk slowly, her hands sliding against the desk. Her hip bumped the side of Cassandra's chair, but she ignored the slight pressure. Her eyes were for only one person, one man who had brought such happiness into her life, but at the same time had brought more pain than she ever thought she would be able to overcome. The one man that had abandoned her, never called her, and now forced his way into her office as though he held that privelege.

_She woke with the feel of him against her body and the taste of his mouth on her lips. Stretching, Brenda pushed herself up from the bed. The second her hand hit the empty pillow beside her, she popped up and turned to the side. "Luis?" She fell forward onto her knees and searched the room. In the early morning light, she could see the open closet door, and inside, the only clothes that remained were hers. The drawers were open of the bureau, the armoire doors wide open. Everything that proved that they had shared this loft was gone._

_Brenda stood up and screamed, "Luis!" She ran into the living room, and there was no sign of him. Everything that Luis Alcazar could pack had been taken. From the desk that he had once conducted business at, he had taken a picture. The frame was still there, but the picture was gone. She knew which one it had been. The two of them at Carly and Lorenzo's wedding, with Brenda laughing after Luis had caught the garter. _

_In place of the picture was a handwritten note, folded in half. With tears streaming her face, angry and hurt, she smashed the front of the frame against the end of the table. The glass broke and crumbled at her feet. She pulled the letter out, cutting her hands against the broken shards of glass. Blood leaked onto the note and she couldn't think about her own pain from the cuts. She could only think that it was far too short._

_Mariposa, my beautiful butterfly,_

_I couldn't stay here, and you know that. It tears my heart to leave you, but I had to go. I don't know when I'll come back, or even if I can, but remember, I love you. Mi corazon… I did this for you. I'd rather you suffer my loss to another country than lose me to prison or worse. I love you, Brenda, and the memory of your body this one last time will carry me._

_Luis._

_She screamed and balled the paper up. She threw it across the room, then turned back to the desk. She swiped her arms across the desk, sending pictures, flowers and papers crashing to the floor. She picked up a large silver frame, holding a picture of the two of them in Venezuela, and slammed it down over and over again on the desk until there was nothing left but jagged shards and disjointed sides._

_Brenda collapsed to the floor and let her tears fall to her hands. Tears mingled with her blood and washed into her cuts. How could he have done this to her? How could he leave her without a real goodbye? Or maybe she should have known that their lovemaking was goodbye. Sex with Luis was always a mixture of furious abandon and careful love. Last night, when she stopped him from leaving, the only fury had been in the first kiss. Everything else had been to solemn, too sacred. It was the softest she'd ever seen Luis, and it would be the last time she'd ever see him again._

She reached around her body and laid a tentative hand against the small of her back. She slid her hand beneath the fabric of her blouse and ran her fingers over the tattoo there. A butterfly graced the small of her back, centered on her spine. If one were to look close enough, they would see that amid the pink, blue and purple designs, the words Luis Alcazar had been hidden inside. She didn't know why she'd never had it removed, or at least covered up, but at that moment, she wished that she had.

Her hand came out so quickly that there was only blur as she collided with the side of his face. She stared at him angrily, but Luis only grinned. He touched his cheek. The pads of his finger dabbed at the corner of his mouth. She hadn't hit him hard enough to crush his lip against his teeth, but there was a small dot of saliva at the corner of his mouth. Luis laughed and said, "I was wondering how long it'd take you to realize I wasn't Lorenzo."

"You bastard!" She beat at his chest and he just stood there laughing. "How dare you leave me! How dare you… you… You knew I'd have gone with you eventually!" She hit him more, harder, and he backed up, but didn't move to stop her. He seemed to be enjoying himself. "You evil son of a bitch!"

Luis looked back at Lucky and laughed. "Don't worry. She won't hurt me. She loves me too much." He turned back to Brenda with a wink. "And evil, well, I don't know about that. What I do know is that it feels just like old times, doesn't it, _mariposa_?"

"I am not your butterfly! Stop calling me that!" As angry as she was to see his face, she was even more angry that for a second, she had wanted to stop beating him. She wanted to kiss him so hard that she would forget the years that they had been apart. She wanted him to whisper naughty Spanish words in her ear and hold her close. She wanted to fight him for the sole purpose of making up later. She should have wanted nothing to do with him, but right then, she could only think of loving him, and that made her as angry with herself as she was with Luis. "I hate you!"

She swung at his face and he caught her wrist. She swung out with the other hand and he caught here, again. "You don't hate me, Brenda." Her body jerked, trying to get away, and he pulled her abruptly towards him. Their bodies collided and a second later, his lips were on hers. Brenda tried to pull away, then memory clicked. She remembered kissing him, loving him, and her body melted. When she sagged, Luis pulled back, grinning. "In fact, I think you still love me."

She blinked at him. Brenda wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. Neither was she going to give herself the grief of unburying the love that she'd hidden so deep within herself. The only way to survive without Luis had been to forget how much she loved him, and she was not about to say it out loud. "I hate you."

Luis smirked. They acted as though there wasn't an audience watching them, and Brenda thought it was because she could so easily fall back into bits of routine and habit with Luis. There were always guards around, and they had always caused scenes in public. She could ignore the people around because her attention was focused solely on him.

Luis started to speak, then stopped as he looked at Brenda's left hand. He would judge the diamond collage on her left ring finger at about four to five carats. His grin turned instantly into disgust. He released Brenda so abruptly that she stumbled backwards and had to catch herself on Cassandra's chair. "You'll hate yourself for doing that," he said gruffly, then turned and walked out, his back rigid. Lucky looked at Brenda, shrugged, then followed Luis out.

Brenda stared down at her hand, then looked up to watch Luis walk away. In the instant she saw him, realized which Alcazar was standing in front of her, she had forgotten that she'd accepted Jax's ring the night before. When she melted into his kiss, there was no thought that another man's ring graced her finger. Now, with it in the open, with Luis so angry, so quickly, the weight of the ring was three times its actual size.

Brenda sighed and walked back around her desk. She fell down hard in the chair and slouched backwards. She should have known that things were going too well for her. Something had to screw it up, and there was nothing that could make a happy life turn topsy turvy like the introduction of Luis Alcazar back into her life.

"Brenda?" She looked up at Cassandra. "Maybe I should come back?"

"No." She shook her head and sat up straight. "Absolutely not. We are not going to let that… that… evil little… snake! That heartless…" She shook her head and shuddered. "We're here to set up your recording schedule, and that's what we're going to do."

And then someone else was calling her name. Brenda looked to the door as Lois Cerullo put her head inside. Her eyes wide. "What was Lorenzo doing here? I just saw him leave, and he didn't look happy."

"That, my best friend in all the world…" She sighed and leaned forward, propping her elbows up on the desk. She rested her face in her hands and looked down, then turned up to look at Lois through the curtain of her hair. "That wasn't Lorenzo. Run out and say hello, throw him a freaking party. Because Luis Alcazar has decided to come in and disrupt our lives again. Oh, the joy, huh?"


	17. Teach Me

"…so you've gotta teach me how to be selfish, 'cause you do it all the time and get away with it. Not that it's a bad thing! I mean, I don't want you thinkin' that I'm putting you down or anything. I just know that it's what you are, and Nikolas likes it, and he lets you get away with it, so I thought maybe you'd be able to teach me to get away with it because Zander doesn't take me seriously when I do it sometimes, so I gotta do it all the time, right?"

Gia Campbell laid on the sofa, her head against the arm, eyes closed. By her estimation, Emily had been talking for at least ten minutes non-stop, and there was no telling when she would quit. A young woman unaccustomed to friends and socializing on a regular basis, her patience for this kind of interaction was thing. However, she'd promised her fianceé that she would be nice, and she was doing her best to keep that promise.

She knew that Emily wasn't trying to be insulting. They had both come a long way since their initial meeting, which included a very scheming Gia spinning a web of blackmail over the adopted Quartermaine. Since then, they had both ended up in relationships that neither would have guessed for themselves and had grown up enough to be relatively comfortable in their own skin. Were it anyone else who spoke so evenly and truthful to Gia, as in Elizabeth Webber or Lucky Spencer, she would have been instantly offended and banished them from Windemere. Emily, however, was no more cruel than she was selfish.

A long silence prevailed and Gia opened her eyes. She sat up and looked at Emily. The brunette stared at her with wide eyes. Gia shook her head. "Oh, you're done. Didn't want to interrupt. A princess has to have manners, or so I'm told."

In truth, Gia was rather proud of her demeanor and the fact that it was one thing that wasn't changed when she entered the life of Nikolas Cassadine. There was so much that everyone told her was wrong, so much of her behavior that she had been instructed to change in order to be a productive member of society. Her selfishness, however, was one thing that wouldn't go away. Her entire life, she had believed herself to be a princess and in a few months time, that would come true. And a princess was required to be selfish. She was supposed to know what she wanted and never betray that. It wasn't her fault that she knew what she wanted and others didn't know how to fight for the same thing.

"Can you help?" Emily leaned forward and her eyes were wide with anticipation and desperation. "I tried, I really did. I begged him not to go out and I told him, I was like, You can't go because I need you here, and he just brushed it off. I think he thought it was cute, and… you can't be cute when you're selfish, can you?"

"Ah, but Gia's cute every time she's selfish." Nikolas Cassadine entered the huge family room with a smirk. He stopped for a second and leaned against the doors, his arms crossed. He winked at both women, then walked across the room. He lifted Gia's feet and sat down, resting her legs on his lap. She folded herself in half, then stretched out again to land with her head in his lap. Nikolas leaned down and kissed her, then looked up at Emily. "You don't need to be selfish, Em. Zander likes you the way you are."

"Yeah, but the way I am doesn't get me anything." She sighed and fell back. Normally, she wouldn't have come to Nikolas with most issues, at least not first. And she most certainly wouldn't have come to Gia for help. Unfortunately, Zander was off doing his dangerous business thing, and Lucky was part of that, so her support system had been wittled away. "I'm selfish every now and then, but they just laugh at me and think it's cute or sweet, but they don't take me seriously. You take Gia seriously no matter how cute she is."

"That's because I'm a master at it." Gia smirked and sat up. She reached back and held onto the arm of the sofa while she pulled herself back, landing with a thump on Nikolas's lap. "And because I've always been this way, and people expect it of me. You…" She sighed. "You're too good to be selfish."

"I'm too pure to be pink," Emily muttered as she slouched down in the overstuffed leather chair. She folded her arms and pouted. "Ya know, I'm really tired of being the good one. Sometimes I wish I could be more like you. I mean, you don't care what people think and they know it, so you can get away with anything. Most people don't even like you but that doesn't matter, because you don't care."

Gia sighed. Again, she knew Emily wasn't being cruel as much as honest, but sometimes, honesty could hurt. In truth, she did care that people didn't like her, she just didn't let that show. To walk into a room and instantly have eyes narrow in her direction made her skin crawl, but at the same time, it stiffened her spine. It also added a cold air to her that only caused people to dislike her more. Well, in that case, she didn't care, because she was not going to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they could get to her, that they could hurt her. Besides, Nikolas liked her, and that was what counted.

"As long as Nikolas loves me, I could care less what people like Elizabeth and the Quartermaines think of me. When I'm a princess, they'll all wish they had what I have."

"And that is?"

"The common sense to know that you can't please everyone and the even greater sense to know that yes, you can actually get what you want." Gia turned to Nikolas and kissed the corner of his mouth, then slid off of his lap. She tossed her legs around to sit up straight, then leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "You really want to know how to get what you want?"

Emily leaned forward more. "Desperately."

"Simple. Open your eyes and realize you have it." Gia leaned back and rolled her eyes. "Look at your life, Emily. You've got this family that dotes on you, swears that you're the greatest thing since the Hope Diamond. You've got Zander who loves you more than anybody could imagine. He would die for you. And everybody adores you. So what if he had to go out, that's a part of life. Nikolas's uncle and grandmother hate me, and they tried to break us up more times than I can count, but in the end, I still have him. He fights Helena and I tell him to just let it rest, but he doesn't. He goes, and Zander will go, but you know he'll come back."

"That doesn't really help me," Emily muttered. "I mean, yeah, my life is great and all that, but… I don't know. I mean, it's not easy to be the good one, the one that everybody expects to be perfect. It's the reason Jason and I still got along after his accident, because we're not perfect, no matter how much they want us to be. And it's why I stick by AJ, because he's not perfect and everybody knows it. They just crap on him and…" She sighed. "And this is just ridiculous. I'm just not a selfish person. It's not in me to be selfish all the time. I mean, sure it works for you, and Nikolas likes it, but…"

"But, nothing," Nikolas said. "Em, you don't have to be selfish to get your way with Zander. You just have to let him know that you'll stick by him. I still don't necessarily like the guy…"

"Nikolas…"

"But, I know you do," he said around her interruption. "And I know what it's like to have people look at you because you messed up a time or two. As long as you keep looking at him like that, like you don't care what he's done as long as he loves you now, he'll always give you what you want eventually."

"Is that how Gia does it? Because she doesn't look at you like that?"

"No, I get what I want because I'm a princess." Gia smirked, then laughed. "And it's Nikolas that looks at me like that, which means he gets what he wants."

"Exactly," Nikolas said with a grin.

Emily looked at the two of them and shook her head. "You two… you shouldn't be a working couple. You should be… I don't know. As far apart as two people can be, but you are, so… I don't know." She sighed and slouched further in the chair. "If you say that's how to do it, then I guess I'll have to do it 'cause I can't think of anybody else that I know of who's better at getting their way… without killing anybody, that is."

"So let the selfish thing go," Gia told her. "It doesn't work for you, anyway. Stick with cute and leave the harder stuff to me. I'm just better at it."


	18. Teenage Trouble

Sofie and Sage were unashamed and very aware as they sat in the principal's office. Their parents stood behind them, Lorenzo behind Sofie and Carly behind Sage. Both had their hands on the girls's shoulders, though Lorenzo's grip was somewhat firmer than Carly's. Both girls stared straight ahead, each with identical smirks and steel eyes that said they didn't care at all what the principal said. It wasn't their fault.

Their brother, however, would probably have something else to say, though he'd never admit it outside of their home. Michael slouched in a chair off to the side, an ice pack over his left eye. He was sure it would be purple by the end of the day and green within another twenty-four hours. He was pretty sure that he was the only person in this room, including his mother, stepfather and the principal, who was completely and utterly innocent. Everybody else was somehow to blame for his black eye.

Another not-so-innocent person walked in the door and Michael sighed. He slouched in his chair as his father walked in. AJ looked down at him with hard eyes and Michael groaned. He wanted to say that it wasn't his fault, but he had no idea how to get that done without causing more trouble for his sisters. He'd just been trying to stop the fight before either of his sisters seriously hurt someone. They had all learned enough about self-defense that they could easily break a jaw or limb with the proper force. Should that have happened, they would have been at the PCPD instead of the principal's office. Of course, with the adults in the room, he wasn't too sure which was worse.

AJ reached down and pulled the ice pack from his son's face, then put it back. He groaned and looked around the room. As usual, his eyes landed on Carly. "Care to tell me what trouble they got him into this time?"

Her eyes narrowed. "I would expect that from you. Blame a couple of innocent girls for something before you even know the details. Ya know, AJ, I am not about to take sides between my…"

Lorenzo cleared his throat and reached out to Carly. His fingertips touched her shoulder, then drifted down her arm. He played at her fingers before taking her hand. She looked at him and he said, "I'm sure AJ doesn't expect you to choose." He turned to AJ. "And none of us know what happened, yet. We were waiting for you to show up."

AJ looked at Lorenzo and would have loved to strike out at him, but he wouldn't. He may have been a recovering alcoholic, but he wasn't an overly violent man. Yet, it annoyed the hell out of him that Lorenzo was so calm. He was a criminal, but his gentile and loose demeanor always made him out to be the respectable guy, the responsible guy… the level-headed guy. If AJ punched him in the mouth, he'd just be giving more credibility to what everyone already thought of him. That he wasn't worth the time that a few members of his family had put into him.

The one thing that kept AJ even remotely calm was the fact that he had been called in about the incident. Had Lorenzo and Carly been the only ones called, he would have been undermined as the parent. He didn't want that gangster being the definitive parent to his child. It was bad enough that Jason had been called a few times before he had. It was about time that the school realized that Lorenzo Alcazar was not the father of AJ's son, and Michael's last name was Quartermaine.

"Can we explain?" Sofie rolled her eyes and leaned back. Her father's grip tightened on her shoulder, but she didn't wince. "You could at least give us the chance to explain what happened. It's not like we told Michael to get involved."

"In fact, I'd have never hit him if he'd just stayed out of it." Sage groaned. Carly put her hand on her head and jerked her back to look at her. She groaned again. "I didn't mean to hit him, Mom. He got in the way of my foot. I was trying to kick the sh-- The hell out of Patrick Sweeney."

"In their defense," Michael said, "she did give the guy a warning. And, there were at least three of them. Sofie and Sage were completely defending themselves. They were getting picked on."

"And you just couldn't let your sisters get picked on." AJ sighed. His son was a better older brother than he had been, and he knew that. All AJ had managed to accomplish was turn his brother into a criminal and get most of his family to hate him, or at least barely trust him. "You were looking out for them."

"I was trying to get them out of fighting, but I stepped in at the wrong time and…" Michael lowered the ice and showed his eye to the room. "Things happen, and I swear to God, I can't wait for them to stop happening." AJ would have expected his son to look at Lorenzo, but instead Michael stared at Sofie and Sage, as if to tell them that they were going to hear about it when they got home.

The parents in the room all stared at one another, then Lorenzo turned to the principal. "What I see here is that two girls were picked on, threatened, and could have gotten beaten up. So, instead of calling us down here because some young men are upset they were beaten by two young girls, you should be teaching your students to be responsible and not to pick on those smaller than them. Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe we'll take our children home and when school starts again on Monday, I expect this to be taken care of."

"Mr. Alcazar…"

"If the parents have issues, they know where to find me." Lorenzo stepped back and first Sofie rose, then Sage. He led his daughters out of the office, with Carly bringing up the rear of the Alcazar bunch. AJ pulled Michael out of his chair and the two followed the others out. They all kept their mouths shut on the way outside of the building, no one willing to say anything within the confined walls of Port Charles High School.

Once they were far enough from the building, standing next to the Lexus that had driven Lorenzo and his guard to the school, they stopped with Lorenzo beside his daughters and AJ beside his son. Lorenzo looked to all of the teenagers, then finally said, "I think it'll be a good idea if Michael stayed with AJ for a while."

"What!" Carly's head whipped around quickly. "What the hell do you mean? Michael is my son and he lives with us. I'm not…"

"Carly, please." Lorenzo sighed. He reached out and touched her, but unlike usual, his touch didn't instantly ease her. He could still see her seething, waiting for the chance to explode. The only thing that was probably stopping her was the fact that AJ would have loved nothing more than for her to cause a scene in public. They were well beyond the days of trying to gain full custody, but both wanted to look like the better one in Michael's eyes. If Carly threw a fit, there was no way that would happen.

Lorenzo sighed again, then looked at AJ. "There are things going on right now, and it might be best if Michael stayed with you. It's dangerous, and if I could get the girls to stay somewhere else, if I had anywhere else for them to stay that I thought they would stay, I'd send them there. I've already got a guard that's going to be taking him and the girls back and forth to school."

"As much as I hate to say you're right…" AJ groaned. "I'm sure Mom would suddenly love me if she knew Michael would be at the mansion for a while."

"And if I don't want to go to the mansion?" Michael looked around and realized that no one particularly cared what he wanted. "Fine, I'll go to the mansion, but if Edward starts with me, again, I can't be held responsible for my actions. I've spent too much time with Sofie and Sage, so there's no telling what I'll do."

"You'll probably call Jason and complain about it." Sage rolled her eyes. "So, Michael's gonna get locked in the mansion and we get locked in the penthouse? That's just great, Dad. Wonderful."

Lorenzo rolled his eyes and smirked. "Then I'll be sure to tell your uncle and Jason that you'd both rather be out kicking teenage boys in the head than seeing them."

"Wait a minute!" Michael dropped his ice pack, then bent down hastily to pick it up. "Luis is in town? So, I get Edward complaining at me and getting on my nerves AND Dad's while they get to hang out with Luis? Now that is what I call unfair." He turned quickly to his father. "Not that I don't wanna hang out with you. 'Cause I do, it's cool, but… it's just not fair!"

AJ sighed. "We'll stay in the boathouse. And you can go visit. But, for the most part, you're staying with me until I'm sure your house doesn't get blown up."

"You know what, AJ? I'm about five seconds from slapping the hell out of you." Carly groaned. She didn't know that Luis had arrived either. She'd already been prepared to have a row with Lorenzo over the choice of Zander as her bodyguard when the situation with the kids came up at school. Now, they were definitely going to have a talk. If Luis were in town, things were worse than she knew them to be, and Lorenzo hadn't even told her. "I'm letting you take Michael because, despite what your family things, I am a good enough mother to put my son first. But, I'm not about to let you scare any of these children or get your digs in on Lorenzo. Why don't you just be a man about it, huh?"

"I'm being a parent about it, and if you were smart, you'd take the girls and go somewhere, too."

"I can't just pull them out of school. Classes just started up again. Besides, if the freaking Quartermaines haven't run me out of town yet, I'll be damned if some idiot with a gun will."

"Yeah, you're a great one, Carly. Just stay there and let the girls get into fights. I can guess what happened. Someone came up to them and called their father a criminal. Oh, and let's not forget Jason."

Sofie sighed. "I'll have you know that it was drug kingpin. And that Jason was a murderer. And they said you were an alcoholic, and Michael got mad, but we know he doesn't fight, so we decided to do it for him."

"And we're not leaving the country," Sage said.

"Would you all just stop?" Michael groaned and shook his head. "You're all acting like… like… us! I mean, come on. Decision's made, right? I'm going home with you and they're going home with Mom and Lorenzo. Case solved. So, would you all just back off?" He sighed and shook his head. "Seriously, guys, enough already. Now, I'm going to go get some stuff from the penthouse, check in on Uncle Jason, say hi and goodbye to Luis, and then I'll be at the mansion. Whatever the hell you all decide to do, be happy at it."

They all watched Michael walk off, trudging in the thin layer of snow until he reached his car. The Ferrari had been a compromise, considering that he had two sets of parents, both claiming that they would be the ones who would buy his car when he turned sixteen. Not to mention Jason's offer to get him a motorcycle. In the end, they all went in on the Ferrari, and Michael got to drive around Port Charles in style.

Lorenzo opened the back door and slid into the car. When the door closed, he rolled down the window and put his head out. "Sofie and Sage, catch up with your brother. You came to school together, you'll leave together." He sighed and shook his head. "Let's all just get out of here before anythinge else happens. Who'd have thought Michael would be the one with the most common sense out of the bunch."


	19. Bad Decisions

Alexis opened the door and was very glad that she had made sure that everything was in its proper place. Were it Lorenzo or Luis, either man would probably have smirked at her and gone about their business. Though, she was almost positive that Luis would have said a lot more about the situation than Lorenzo. Most likely, he would have tried to condemn her for the company that she kept. In the end, though, she would have slammed the door and most would have been forgotten the next day. The man who stood at her door, however, was neither Alcazar, and would have behaved in a much more damaging fashion.

Stefan Cassadine stood with his arms folded, and it was very clear to Alexis that the minutes he'd been left waiting were not appreciated. His deep brown suit creased at his bent elbows. The hard white cuffs of his shirt brushed against the back of his hands. His fingers drummed against his arm as he stared forward with a look of impatience. He obviously had better things to do with his time than to wait for her at the door.

"Natasha," he said, "there are things we must discuss."

"Stefan…" Alexis paused. She couldn't very well tell him that she was entertaining. He would ask about her guest and then there would be nothing but disappointment, and that would certainly ruin the mood. "…can't this wait? I'm working on something right now."

The disappointment in his eyes was nothing compared to what would have been there had he seen her guest. This was a look of shame, telling her that she should know that nothing is more important than her family. Especially when that family was the one that had kept her alive when Helena wanted her dead. However, the disappointment over her tryst, considering that her tryst was supposed to be her enemy, would have made this shame pale in comparison. He would go into a rant of how he expected better of her, that she should be above such things. In the end, Alexis would have found herself sharing a bottle of wine with no one and passing out on the sofa.

"That is precisely what we need to talk about." He tried to move forward, but she stopped him. "What is the meaning of this, Natasha? There are things we must discuss concerning the safety of your position, and I would prefer not to do it standing out in the cold."

"Thinking of cold, where's your coat?" She hoped to turn the situation around to his own well-being, but Stefan would have nothing of the sort. He merely stared at her with intense eyes. Alexis sighed. The coat was probably in the car because a) he hated to be confined and b) he expected to get inside. "Can this wait, Stefan? We both know that this will become nothing more than you talking and me ignoring. I work for the Alcazars and nothing is going to change that."

Stefan argued, and it was expected. Luckily for Alexis, she was every bit as Cassadine as her brother, and she was more than capable of standing up to him. Add in the fact that she had devoted her life to arguing in front of jury, and Alexis Davis came out on top. She knew that the war wasn't over, and more than likely, she would be having this conversation with Stefan very soon, but at least he was gone for the time being.

Alexis waited at the door until Stefan's car pulled away. Once he was gone, she closed the door, turning around and let her body slouch against the hard white wood. She let out a heavy sigh and slouched more. Her eyes closed, and didn't reopen until there was a body standing over her. His arm was close enough to the side of her head to brush her face as he braced himself against the door. Alexis opened her eyes and groaned.

She wasn't entirely sure that this was the place she should have been. A part of her told her that she should have taken the out given her by Stefan. She could have gestured until the point was gotten to leave the room and escape any way possible. Too bad she ignored that little voice and went for the larger one that she liked to call her Lascivity.

District Attorney Ric Lansing looked down at her with amused eyes. She only saw them for a second, though, because her eyes were pulled instantly to his chest. While she had taken great care to fix every button and close every snap, Ric hadn't bothered to alter his appearance. His white shirt still gaped open, hanging loose at his sides. His belt was still missing, probably on the floor beside the sofa, and his pants were unzipped. Alexis resisted the urge to surge one hand up his chest and the other into his pants. She was rather proud of her restraint, though not so proud that the scene still played out in full within her head.

Alexis shook her head and blinked. This was not the time to turn into a teenager with raging hormones. In fact, there was no good reason for Lansing to even be in her house. Were she truly as smart as she claimed to be, she would have slammed the door in his face, leaving him and his bottle of Merlot to chill in the cool winter air. But of course, that would have been too much like right, and no one ever said that Alexis Davis did what was right.

Oh, in the courtroom, she always knew exactly what to do and when to do it. She knew how to push people's buttons. She could cause a usually calm and sane person to become irrational on the stand. She could twist the opposing attorney's own words to suit her cause. More than once, she had painted one of the Alcazars, Jason Morgan, or someone of their organization to be the perfect, model citizen. She was an absolute pro when it came to the courtroom.

Her personal life, however, was a different matter altogether. From Ned Ashton on down the line, Alexis had done nothing but screw up her personal life. She just couldn't push away the ones that were no good for her, and the ones that were perfect for her didn't seem to even exist. She could only stare at these men like a deer blinded by headlights, as though she'd never seen an attractive man before. It was pathetic, she knew that, but she couldn't help herself.

Ric Lansing was no different than the others. Deep down, she knew that he only wanted to get her to join the dark side… Or would that be the bright side in her case? By Lansing's standards, she was already working for the dark side. By her own, there was no light or dark. There was just money, loyalty and the Cassadine desire to win at all costs. Her blood told her that the side she was on was where she would gain victory. Having personally defeated the prosecution on so many occasions, she knew that there would be nothing but loss if she crossed over.

And yet… there was something about Ric. He wasn't nearly as clean as he would like others to believe. She thought that somewhere down the line, he'd taken a bribe or two. A burnt out, big city, Manhattan attorney couldn't possibly be courted into Port Charles with just the promise of a bustling career. Maybe it was the bribes or something more sinister that made him leave Manhattan. She didn't know, but she Alexis thought that if her brother found out about their little courtship, he would make it a point to find out. Stefan would uncover every dirty little thing that Ric had done. It might not have made her end whatever was going on between them, but it would definitely give her leverage when he tried to be high and mighty. She made a mental note to dig a little deeper into the District Attorney's past and see what she could find.

"You're thinking and that's never a good thing." Alexis looked up, startled, in time to see Ric's wink and grin. "We were having so much more fun before thought became part of the deal."

"Thought should always be part of the deal." She ducked his arm and walked quickly towards the sofa. She passed the sofa and stood in front of the fireplace. Her foot tapped anxiously on the floor, and then she began to pace back and forth. "You shouldn't be here. This is the biggest case of conflict of interest that I have ever been apart of. Not that I've seen, mind you, because I've seen some whammies and exploited them to the full advantage." She stopped pacing, took a deep breath, then looked at Ric. "I should exploit this one all to hell. You realize I could go to the judge tomorrow and tell them that you can't handle any Alcazar related cases because you're way too close to their attorney."

"You could." Ric nodded and walked slowly towards her. Alexis's head tilted to the side and her eyes focused on his body, every sinew moving slowly, twisting, as though to music. She shook her head and looked up as he stopped in front of her. "But, you won't."

"Oh, really?" There was nothing like a challenge to make Alexis shake off her girlish demeanor. In a second, she could go from crushing schoolgirl to devastating attorney. "And exactly why wouldn't I do that?"

"Well, for one…" He leaned into her, though didn't touch. His head came in beside her head and his breath was warm against her ear. "It would make you look bad, corrupted by the D.A." He moved to the other side and his nose brushed her hair. "And for two, you're enjoying it." He leaned in closer until his lips touched the smooth skin just below her earlobe. "Too much, I think."

And just as quickly, the firm attorney vanished. Alexis shivered and felt her body start to weaken. Her knees began to buckle, but she pushed herself back up straight. She couldn't stop her heart from beating faster or her lungs from burning, but she could keep herself from falling all over him.

Her arms remained at her sides as Ric reached out. He touched her hips lightly. Ric pulled her towards him and Alexis cursed herself for actually going. She should have dug her heels in and told him to go away. She should have told him that this was not going to happen because, while it would have been great strategy to compromise the District Attorney, it was not in her best interest to compromise herself, as well. She didn't, though. She let him pull her forward until their bodies bumped, then his arms circled her waist.

"So, forget the interruptions, and forget the battles of tomorrow." Ric pressed his lips against her neck, then kissed his way down until he hit her shirt. "Just enjoy it, Alexis. You know you want to."

She groaned… then moaned as he moved back up her neck. Alexis's head fell back and she sighed. "I really despise you, Ric. You know that?"

"And your point?"

He kissed her again and she rolled her eyes. "Why do I even bother?" Alexis shook her head, stood straight, grabbed Ric by the head and kissed him hard.


	20. Snoops

"When do ya suppose things'll be wrapped up enough so that we're not in the major danger? I was thinking Sofie and I could go down to Caracas with Tio Luis for part of the summer." Sage flashed a winning smile, but she could tell by the near identical expression on either of her parents faces that it wasn't doing any good. "Does this silence mean that we're not supposed to spend time with Tio Luis?"

Sofie rolled her eyes and slouched further into her chair. "It means, moron, that Caracas with him is probably just as dangerous at any time as right now is in Port Charles with them." She sighed and looked to her parents. "Or did I miss the point?"

"The only point that needs to be caught here is that I didn't miss yours." Lorenzo smirked at the girls, then looked up to Carly as she sat perched on his lap. More than likely, Sofie and Sage had figured that catching their parents while otherwise occupied, they would easily get the information they desired. More than once, they'd barged in one what they called "disgustingly cute moments" and been told they could do whatever they wanted as long as it included their disappearance for ten minutes or so. "I'm not telling you anything more than I've already told you."

Sage looked to Sofie and grunted. "I told you it wouldn't work." She flounced down on the sofa, her loose and breezy white skirt blooming out around her. She folded her arms and pouted. "Even though we really do want to spend time with him, since his time has been all for Brenda Barrett."

"We could always just go downstairs and ask him." Sofie shrugged. They were relegated to spending the majority of their free time inside of Harborview Towers. That meant that, unless under heavy guard, they could visit Jason across the hall or Luis downstairs. Of course, considering that they always seemed to ditch their guard the second the opportunity rose, heavy guard didn't mean much to them. Thus, they spent all of their time within the confines of the building unless they were at school or with their brother. "You know, AJ doesn't keep Michael locked up like a prisoner."

"AJ is an idiot." Carly rolled her eyes. Lorenzo gently squeezed her thigh and she sighed. She tried her best to control her comments about AJ when Michael were around, but he wasn't there. Granted, she wasn't always a saint when her son was around, but she tried her best not to diminish him in the boy's eyes without provocation. Her daughters, though… It bothered Carly that her daughters actually liked AJ Quartermaine. "Michael is in less danger than the two of you are."

"Have our lives been threatened?" Sofie leaned forward and pressed her elbows into her knees. Even though a thin skirt covered her legs, she would still have bright pink marks where the bone dug into flesh. "Because I think we should know exactly what the threat was, if they've been threatened, that is. Of course, if I'm wrong, feel free to tell me."

Lorenzo groaned. There were times when he regretted the decision he and Carly had made that their daughters would grow into mature young adults. Were they as mature as some of the teens around town, it would have been a lot easier to end a conversation. They had raised Sofie and Sage with a respectful manner, which caused them to believe that they should be respected in all aspects. Sometimes, they forgot that they were still children. Or at least Sofie forgot. Sage always remembered and used it to her advantage.

"Wait a minute…" Lorenzo rose a curious eyebrow. "For two who are so eager to get out of the house, you both certainly don't seem dressed for the weather."

"We're stuck inside, so we're dressing for inside." Sofie shrugged. "Besides, this isn't about what we're wearing. If we were going outside, we'd put on pants. This is about our summer with Tio Luis and this business with that guy…"

"That Sonny Corinthos!" Sage jumped up, then fell back to the sofa when her sister shot her a dark glare. No one was supposed to know just how much information they had eavesdropped their way into knowing. The sheer fact that it was a man could have been a good guess or some deductive reasoning. Knowing the name was something entirely different. Sage cleared her throat and shook her head. "This is about us going down to Caracas with Tio Luis as soon as this dirty business has all been taken care of. We just want to know if we should make plans for when school is out, that's all."

Carly and Lorenzo looked at each other and shook their heads. If it weren't for the fact that Lorenzo was pretty sure Carly knew the same information and had gotten it the same way, he would have given the girls a stern lecture. Unfortunately, with his wife perched on his lap, he couldn't do that without playing favorites. He sighed and said, "I should make you sit over there with them."

Carly shrugged. She wasn't going to pretend that she hadn't listened to any conversation that had been held within the walls of her home. As far as she was concerned, she was within every right to know exactly what was going on. The inside knowledge her sneakiness granted her a feeling of ease during this war for Port Charles that others around her didn't have. She knew what was going on and she knew what steps needed to be taken to be sure that she stayed out of the middle of it. Besides, she thought Lorenzo should have had more faith in her, which was an argument that they'd had more than once in the few weeks since the initial shooting.

There was a battle playing out in the streets of Port Charles, and Carly refused to be one of those people who didn't know enough to stay safe. The back and forth between the Alcazar and Corinthos organizations had yet to claim innocent lives, but there were injuries, and Alexis Davis was working her fingers to the bones to keep everyone out of prison. The only one who seemed to be immune from any harassment was Jason, and that was only because he'd kept his word to Sam and didn't leave his penthouse except to meet across the hall or go to the hospital.

"I don't apologize for keeping myself in the loop, Lorenzo." Carly stood up and sighed, but she didn't walk over to the girls. She moved behind Lorenzo's chair and put her hands on his shoulders, then looked at their daughters. "The two of you, however… I'm tempted to believe that you let that little bit of information slip out to get something."

"No, I think it wasn't supposed to be let out," Lorenzo said, placing his hand over Carly's, "but now that it has been, let's get something straight. Knowing the two of you have been sneaking won't get you out of here any sooner."

"Daddy!" Sofie put her hands to her chest with mock indignation. "I am thoroughly offended that you think we would use something like this. All we want to do is spend some time with our uncle. When this is all over, Luis will probably leave us again, and then, we'll be unhappy."

"We'll cry, Daddy." Sage blinked away faux tears and her bottom lip trembled. "We just wanted to know when life would be back to normal, and you've turned it all into us being villified. I don't… I don't know what to say…"

"I say you're both full of it, but it was very well acted." Carly smirked and rolled her eyes. "You're both good. Very, very good. But, that still doesn't mean that we're telling you anymore than you already know. We're also not letting you run around without, at least, Michael as a chaperone. For all we know, you think you're battle hardened criminals and will run out to take care of Corinthos yourself."

"We wouldn't!"

"Yes, you would. And now…" Carly sighed. "Now, I need to go to work. And I get Zander Smith to follow me around." Lorenzo gave her a look of annoyance and she said, "What? I'm not complaining. Just stating a fact, that's all." Carly bent and kissed him lightly. She moaned softly, then stood up and slowly walked towards the door, grabbing her coat from the nearby stand. "When I get home, I don't want anymore of this, got me?"

The girls grunted their acceptance and watched as Carly went out the door. Once she was gone, they were banished from the room to think about their actions. As they stomped up the stairs, both knew that Lorenzo had to know that time alone was going to do nothing more than give them even more time to come up with another plan to escape from their posh prison. And they found their chance over an hour later when the phone rang and their father burst into the room. "Stay here. Don't answer the phone, and don't answer the door."

"Dad?" Sofie looked up at his anxious eyes with a bit of fear mixed in with her frustration. "What's going on?"

"Luis…" He shook his head, knowing better than to tell them anything right then. He'd never get out of there if he stopped to explain what was going on. "Just remember what I said before. It's dangerous, and I don't want you out there, especially not today. Not right now." Lorenzo shook his head again, then turned and moved quickly to the door. Before he closed the door behind him, he turned and said, "If anybody gets past Max at the door…"

"Dad?"

"If anybody comes here and gets inside… Get to our room. Top drawer on the right side of the bed."

Lorenzo closed the door and was gone. Sofie and Sage looked to one another and let fear start to rise. They both knew what was in that drawer, and if he told them about it, directed them to use it, then it was really bad, really soon. And yet, if he thought they were in that much danger, he wouldn't have left them, no matter what had happened to Luis. At the very least, he'd have taken them with him.

"You think we can get out now?" Sage asked.

Sofie smirked. "Yeah, we can. And…" She dug underneath her bed, her face twisted in concentration until she came out with a sheet of paper. Fear was gone as she grinned, a look that was more like her uncle's than she'd ever conjured. "I know exactly where we're going."

"What's that?"

"The address of where one Sonny Corinthos is hiding out." She smirked. "Ya know, Dad was wrong. The internet isn't a horrible place at all. In fact, I don't know if anything better was ever invented."


	21. Dishonored Treaties

There was no way that the Alcazar brothers were going to go along with any idea that was discussed in the meeting. Sonny Corinthos was well aware of that and there was no one who could tell him any differently. He knew that Luis Alcazar would sit with his bodyguard at his back and pretend that he wanted a peace. There were people dying in the streets of Port Charles, after all, and no matter how much Luis enjoyed a good fight, his brother was a family man. His brother was a moderately respected, though mostly feared, citizen of the community. His brother didn't want the idea that his wife or children could be caught in the crossfire. He didn't want his reputation ruined because Luis couldn't control himself.

Sonny thought it was strange that Luis had been sent to the meeting. In fact, he had been waiting for the assassination attempt. Luis Alcazar was known for being the ruthless of the brothers Grim. If one were enemy to either of them, violence and gross destruction could be expected, but Lorenzo was known to be more business oriented. He was the one that held formal meetings and discussed business negotiations, usually with Jason Morgan by his side. Of course, Morgan had been temporarily taken out of the equation, so maybe that was why Luis came instead of his twin. Or maybe they wanted him to know that this was merely a formality; that no deal between them would truly be honored and Luis would be released to do his worst.

Whatever the reason, Sonny Corinthos had sat across from Luis Alcazar for more than two hours, hammering out a deal that would equally split the town. They wanted their arms shipments left alone and there would have to be payment made, a percentage of the drug profits. Port Charles was their territory, of course. They wouldn't let him take control anymore than he would let them retain control.

It was all bullshit, as far as Sonny saw things. They wanted to lull him into a false sense of security. They told him that the assassination attempts would stop. His base of operations would be Port Charles, and he could roam the streets as he saw fit. With or without guards, it didn't matter, because they wouldn't be putting anymore hits out on him. They would be business parents. Yeah, sure. They just wanted him to go outside alone so they could take him out. Probably waiting for Morgan to get back on his feet so he could do the deed. Didn't trust the kids they had on the payroll for the heavy work, so they would wait until Morgan could shoot, run and not get caught.

Well, that most certainly was not how things were going to go down. He didn't get where he was, at the top of the Rivera organization, by letting others get the jump on him. He struck first and he struck hardest. The first attempt on Lorenzo Alcazar had been a bust, he had to admit that. He hadn't anticipated Luis throwing his legal troubles to the wind to come back to town. He also hadn't counted on Lorenzo or Morgan to survive that attack. He just had to be harder, quicker, smarter.

Smarter was to lull the Alcazars into the very false sense of security that they wanted for him. He had to hope that they were conceited enough to let their egos rise above their common sense. He had to hope that they thought Sonny to be stupid, beneath them, and unable to see their plot coming a mile away. He banked on that day, the day of the meeting, to be their weakness; that it would be the day they laid in wait, the day before the strike.

So, Sonny Corinthos struck first and he struck hardest… all at once. Everybody but Lorenzo Alcazar. He would take care of him personally.

* * *

"You have got to be kidding me!" 

As Carly screamed her disgust, Zander streaked past her, his eyes directed behind the bar at what caught her attention. The numbers on the bomb were ticking away, and if either of them had to guess, and as they would both later tell the police, it appeared that the timer had been set to start the second the door to The Cellar closed shut behind them.

"This place is supposed to be off-limits," Zander said. In a second, he had Carly by the arm and was jerking her towards the door. "It was part of the deal."

"What? What deal?" She cried out as her side hit the edge of the bar when they rounded it. She stumbled and Zander continued to jerk her forward. Prada heels were not the best for one to run in, and Carly wondered if she should start wearing flatter shoes when trouble hit the fan. "Zander, what are you doing!"

Her arm was being nearly pulled from the socket. The back hem of her slacks caught underneath her heel and she went down to her knees and was instantly jerked back up. She looked to Zander as they neared the stairs leading up to the door and he had a phone out. Who was he calling at a time like this? All she heard was, "Deal's off. Corinthos double-crossed us!"

She could still hear the beeping of the bomb's clock, and Carly knew that it was only in her head. They were almost through the door. There was no way she could hear the sound from all the way over there. However, the beep beep beep of each second passing stuck in her head, serving as a calculation of how much time they had and how much farther they had to go. Once they got up the stairs inside the club, there were still two more sets to get up before they were outside of the building. Then, they had to get out of the blast range.

What about the surrounding businesses? She had seen very few people around the area when they had come inside only moments before. In the immediate vicinity, they were close enough to the docks that there weren't very many businesses in the area, but there were still a few places just up the way. She had signed on for these types of things when she agreed to stay with Lorenzo, but they were innocent bystanders. Carly wasn't exactly known for being compassionate towards people she didn't know, but that didn't mean she wanted them to blow up, either.

Almost at the door, Carly thought as she looked up. She tripped over the steps, but forced herself to stay on her feet. The floor beneath them shook and both Carly and Zander stopped. They looked down, over the banister, and saw a ball of fire rushing up. Zander hoisted Carly over his shoulder and ran as fast as he could up the stairs before the entire place blew.

Plaster fell around them and the walls shook. Two steps from the landing that led to the outer door there was a rush of fire. Zander shoved himself hard against the wall. The heat scorched the side of his face as he turned away. He fell down and huddled himself around Carly. She felt the seering heat quickly and then it was gone. They stood up and Zander looked down. The fire had rushed back down into the bar, but they both knew that wasn't the end of it.

"It's coming back," Zander said softly, turning to Carly. "It's going to destroy the entire bottom floor…"

"Then suck us into it." Her eyes were wide and her hair stuck to her face. "We've got to get out of here."

"Now."

* * *

Jason stumbled into Luke's clutching his stomach, bent forward. He was almost healed, but not enough for the amount of running that he'd been doing since receiving the call from Zander. All of his stitches had been removed, the staples had long since desolved into his system, but his body was still tender. He healed quickly, but not fast enough to be ready for everything to go to hell all at once. 

"Come on, we've gotta go. Close the place down, now."

Sam looked up at him confused. "What…" Her words stopped as she took a good look at Jason. His face was blanched, his eyes lined with red. She pressed her hands flat against the bar and hopped over the smooth top. She ran to him and slid under his arm, making him put some of his weight on her. "Jason, what's going on?"

"It's all a double-cross." His voice was strained as he turned her towards the door. He took a look around the club and, in the middle of the afternoon, there weren't many people there. "The bar is closed," he said as loud as he could. "Everybody out." People looked up at him confused and he shouted, "Out!"

Nervously, people began to leave. A few dropped money on their tables, some still held bewildered looks, but all of them got out of the bar. Jason practically dragged Sam towards the door, leaning on her enough that it would be impossible for her to not come with him. His leather jacket crunched and groaned as it moved against her.

"Jason… I have to go in the office. I've gotta get my coat. The keys…"

"Leave the coat," he said. "We're not taking the bike, anyway, we're going in the car that drove you here." He dug in his pocket and came out with a set of keys. "I got 'em from Luke before he skipped out on Helena watch, just in case I had to get you out of here quick."

"Jason, what's going on? You still haven't told me…"

"Everybody's being hit," he said quickly. He didn't have time to give her a full explanation, so she would have to settle for the brief one until he was able to do more. "All of us, and anybody they think might go for revenge if we go down. So, come on."

Jason dragged her outside and waited while she locked the front doors, shivering from the cold. Groaning in pain, he pulled out his cell phone and made a call. He'd already been so close to Luke's that getting to Sam had been the only thing on his mind when he first heard from Zander, telling him to hurry up and get Carly to safety. He'd received a call from Lorenzo just before stepping into the building, telling him that he was in the process of bailing Luis and Lucky out of jail, so he and Alexis were safe. That still left Michael and the girls.

"Max," he said as the other line picked up. "Get the girls, then pick up Michael at AJ's and get them to the safe house. Then…" He paused as Max started speaking quickly, his voice steady, though not because he didn't care. He had to speak clearly to be able to get anything done. "Dammit! Alright, get Michael. Lorenzo and I will handle the girls."

He hung up the phone and turned to Sam. She didn't say anything, but the question was in her eyes. She wanted to know what was going on. What left that haunted look in Jason's eyes, a look so dark and unclear that she didn't know if he were going to cry or start screaming. Jason opened his mouth to tell her, but was cut off as she yelled, "Jason, get down!"

Sam barrelled against him, knocking them both to the ground. Without thinking, she grabbed the Beretta from his inner-pants holster and pointed it across the club's parking lot. The gun was bigger than her hand and in the freezing cold, it was harder to pull the trigger, but she got off six shots. Three went wild, but the other three struck their mark. Two in the chest and one took off the gunman's cheek.

She looked at the gun in her hands, then sat up as she heard Jason groan. Sam knelt on her knees as Jason rose up from the ground, his back and hair covered in snow. He took the gun from her and she gave a nervous laugh that hid a sob. "You, um… were gonna say?"

Jason looked across the lot, then back at Sam. She was shaking, and he didn't think it had anything to do with the cold. She may have liked to think of herself as a hardcase, but she wasn't a killer. He pulled himself to his feet, holding the gun to his side, then reached out to Sam. She took his hand and Jason pulled her to her feet.

"Thanks," he said softly.

"Not a problem." She gulped hard and Jason wondered if it were more of a problem than she was willing to admit. A problem that crept up on her in the dark of night. "Um… that guy's… he's dead." She gulped again. "And you still have that look in your eyes."

He looked at her confused for a second, then shook his head. "Max…"

"The girls?"

"They're not at the penthouse and Max has no clue where they went. Or how they got out without going past him." Jason thought for a second and his eyes darkened. Anger filled them and then was quickly cooled by knowledge. "But, I know. And so will Lorenzo and Carly."


	22. Can't Go Back

Brenda looked up at Mac Scorpio and wondered if there were possibly anyone else that needed to be questioned. She'd spoken to D.A. Lansing. She'd spoken to the arresting officers, and to Detective Taggert. She told them all the same thing, and honestly, she was just tired of repeating the same story over and over again. No, she didn't see anything. Yes, she heard footsteps behind her. They were crunching the snow. Yes, she heard gunshots. Yes, some of them came from behind her.

"I just need you to be clear on everything that happened, Brenda," he said. "I need to be perfectly clear that you're not covering up for anybody."

Her eyes flicked to Luis. He sat with his face straight, lips a thin line, handcuffed to a desk parallel to her. There was nothing to read in his eyes, no hint whether he was upset or pleased with himself. She wished he would let something show, something to tell her that he was still the man she had known, that he was still the one that had run off in the night, leaving her to lay alone in the bed.

The District Attorney was different, as was the Chief of Police, but that didn't change the fact that they all had a jones for getting Luis Alcazar in jail. They wanted to regain the victory that had been lost by their predecessors. There was nothing any of them could do about past offenses, but now… There was gunpowder residue on his hands. Two men were dead and neither of them were Lucky Spencer or Luis Alcazar. Murder was afoot in Port Charles, and they were ready to place the blame.

"I didn't see anything," she said with a sigh. "I told you, already… We were standing outside of the Grille, talking." She stopped. "You know, I've said this same thing over and over again, to who knows how many people. Why do I have to say it again?"

"This is the last time," Mac told her. "Just once more."

Brenda sighed. She turned towards the entranceway and waited for Jax to come inside. She had called him after the second telling of the story… or was it the third? He said he was on his way, but he'd yet to show up. Maybe if he walked through the door, she'd have the strength to tell the police to go to hell. Of course, knowing Jax, he would probably tell her to cooperate. He was no more thrilled about Luis being in town than the police.

She couldn't blame him, really. She had kept Luis's presence a secret as long as she could, but when he decided to show up at their cottage, there was nothing she could do. She had to stand there and watch while Luis tossed smirks Jax's way, letting him know without words that he was going to have Brenda back one way or another. So, no, Jax wouldn't help her escape the police. He would only insist that she do all that she could to have him put away.

"We were talking, alright? We were talking and… I don't know. It was more like one of those, stop talking to me, ex-relationship sorta things, ya know? And then, he pushed me down and there were shots. I…" She stopped and looked at Luis, again. He just sat there, watching her, staring at her. It was as though he'd never turned away from her, though she had done that to him. Still looking at him, she said, "All I know is that someone was shooting at us. I think… I know… I mean, I think… I think it was just self-defense."

Mac stood up, visibly angry. She could tell that he wanted her to say something damning, but she couldn't. As much as she hated Luis for the way he left, for never calling her, she couldn't send him to jail. Even if it hadn't been self-defense, she didn't know if she would have been able to say anything else. She'd spent years protecting him and couldn't stop that easily.

Mac walked away and Brenda was left to stare at Luis. Then to stare at his brother's back as Lorenzo walked in and blocked her view. Alexis walked past them and barged into the interrogation room, where they were holding Lucky. Within minutes, they would all be leaving, but she knew it wouldn't be the last she saw of Luis, and by association, Lucky. Luis hadn't given up yet, and part of her knew that he would take her defense of his actions as something more, as a chance that the two of them still had a future. He wouldn't take it for what it was; her telling as much of the truth as she could remember.

Lorenzo walked away and when she saw Luis's face again, he was smirking. Lorenzo's back was straight as he walked away, which meant that Luis probably got one over on him. He stopped outside of the interrogation room and took a call on his cell. He spoke softly for a few minutes, then hung up. Now, he was angry. She couldn't see his face as he turned towards his brother, but his body was rigid and held a slight tremor. He barged into the interrogation room, and the door slammed behind him.

With a sigh, Brenda stood up. She walked slowly, on shaky legs, towards Luis. The bottom of her black slacks were wet with melted snow. She clutched her coat tightly against her, covering the wetness that covered the front of her body. She'd been pressed so hard against the ground, underneath Luis's body, that that she was soaked through. At one time she had been cold, but now, she was just numb.

"I showed you too much," she whispered, drawing closer to Luis. Brenda didn't know exactly why she was telling him any of this. She had just felt a need to do so. Since yelling at him that first day, she knew it had been the wrong course of action. Showing him that she held so much anger just showed that she still cared. It showed that she'd never really let him go, and that only served to push him on in his endeavors to reclaim her for his own.

"You didn't need to see that, and I didn't need to feel it." She looked down at him and sighed. His eyes betrayed nothing. If he felt anything at her words, her presence, he didn't let her know. She hadn't seen anything in his eyes after he rose from on top of her outside of the Port Charles Grille. Then, there had been concern, so similar to when the loft had been shot up with her inside, or the dozens of times they'd almost been shot in South America . There had also been a hint of excitement over the rush of what had just happened. Now, there was nothing. "Luis…"

"You needed to feel it, Brenda. You know you did, because you still love me." He sighed. "You have your engagement and your Aussie playboy, but you know he's not what you want. He's not me."

"That's right, Luis, he's not you." Brenda took in a deep breath and her body shook with its release. "He's not going to leave me in the middle of the night. If he goes away, he'll let me know that he's alright. He won't leave me here for years to wonder if he's doing okay, if he still loves me, if he's moved on…"

"Do you really think I could move on?"

"This isn't about what you could do, Luis. It's not even about what you did. I know Lorenzo. I know he didn't tell you that I was miserable, that I went to him and begged him to tell you to come back and get me. I knew all of that, so I moved on. But now… Today proves exactly why I can't be with you anymore."

"Today only proves that I can still protect you. That I'll take the danger."

"The only way you can protect me is to let me go. To let me move on because being with you… There's too much pain in being with you, Luis. I've grown these years, and I've matured, but you…" Her eyes closed as she shook her head, pushing away the flashes of times with Luis, the danger and intrigue, but also the love and the exhileration of sex. "…you turn me into that selfish little girl I was that tried to break up Karen and Jason. You turn me into this woman that's been gone so long I can't even recognize her."

"I turn you into what you really are. You're my butterfly, my vibrant color free and wild. I didn't bring you out of your coccoon just for you to go back into it. This isn't you, Brenda. We both know that. Jasper Jacks…" Luis said the name with distaste, as though just uttering it left a foul taste in his mouth and if he spit enough, it might eventually go away. "…he can't make you happy."

She wanted to tell him that neither could he, but the words wouldn't push out of her throat. She was prepared to tell him that she was happy with Jax, that he loved her and she loved him, but again, the words wouldn't come out. She heard someone call her name and she turned. Jax was a few feet away, standing with his hands at his side. Brenda didn't know what he thought of what he saw, or how much he had seen. Had he heard anything that either of them said or was he too far away?

She shook her head. It didn't matter. She gave a last look to Luis and crossed the floor. The heels of her boots thumped heavily on the tile floor. She reached out and wrapped her arms around Jax. She held him as he pressed her face against his chest. His chin rested on top of her head. "Are you alright?" he asked her.

Brenda looked up at him, then turned to look at Luis. His eyes were cold as they passed her head and stared at Jax. Her fiancee's body stiffened and she knew that neither man was going to give up. She felt that in the end, she would be forced to choose and despite everything she'd just told Luis, it was not an easy decision to make.

"I need to get back to L&B," she said, ignoring the question of her condition. She wasn't alright, at all, but staring at Luis she could neither tell the truth of her answer nor lie about it. She wanted him to go away, leave her in peace as he'd left her in turmoil, because the longer he was in town, the harder it became to deny that she still loved him.

At last, Jax turned with Brenda in his arms, leading her out of the police station. However, they only reached a few steps before she stopped, hearing the call come over the nearby radio as they passed the desk. "There's a fire raging at The Cellar. We need all units at The Cellar. It's believed that Zander Smith and Carly Alcazar are still inside the building…"


	23. Burning

Her body ached, but from the groan underneath her, she knew that Zander was aching a whole lot worse. Carly could remember the floor giving out beneath them, the staircase that they stood on shaking and rumbling before breaking away. Zander had held onto the banister as tightly as he could, and Carly was gripping onto him for dear life. Their fall wasn't as far as it could have been without the help of the banister, but it was still far. There had to be at least five or six feet between the bottom of the railing and the pile of rubble beneath them. When Zander finally let go, he'd twisted quickly enough in the air to fold himself around Carly and land on his side. There was less of a chance of something severe breaking falling that way.

She would have loved to be able to blame Lorenzo for all of this. There was a time, years ago, when she would have done just that. She would have cursed him for being unable to keep his family safe. She also would have run for the hills. This was a situation that she couldn't control, and if there was one thing that Carly could never stand, it was being unable to control a situation. But now…

This wasn't Lorenzo's fault. In fact, part of it was her own. She had made the decision to stay with him. She'd had her chance to cut and run, and she had let it go past. She made the decision to stay with Lorenzo, to raise her children with him and to acknowledge the "for worse" part of her marriage vows. She put herself in the line of fire, and she couldn't blame Lorenzo for that, even though she wanted to really badly.

Of course, even if she'd left Lorenzo, this probably would have still happened. She would have been his ex-wife, but his daughters would always be in his life. Through them, she would always have a connection to Lorenzo. In the end, this man, this Sonny Corinthos, would have still found them a threat, and he would have still tried to kill them. So, in effect, it was neither her fault nor Lorenzo's fault. It was Sonny Corinthos's fault.

That thought settled better with her, and helped her push herself up from Zander. The scrapes and scratches on her arms itched and burned. Her slacks were torn and through the slits, she could see more scratches. She pulled the leg of her slacks to the side to see the growing bruise on the side of her knee. Carly touched it gingerly with the tips of her fingers and winced. She knew the ache would only get worse, but at least her leg was broken. Her knee wasn't dislocated. All in all, the situation could have been a lot worse.

Groaning, Zander rolled to his side and Carly looked down at him. The scratches and cuts on his face made her think of how her own had to have looked. Deciding that she didn't want to know the true horror of her visage, she kept her eyes on Zander. He pushed himself up with his left arm and she noticed that his right arm dangled at his side. He stumbled to his feet and looked around at their surroundings.

Flames licked all around them. They weren't all the way to the bottom, and if they were, they would have been dead. A hole near them showed fire raging in the main room of The Cellar. Small explosions from the area of the bar were enough to feed the flames, though not enough to shake the building anymore. Every minute or so, the fire pushed high enough to smolder the rocks beneath Carly and Zander, and force the flames on their area of debris to rise.

"We'll die of inhalation before the fire ever gets us unless we get out of here soon." Carly coughed and looked around her. "There's gotta be a way outta here." She looked up through the hole above them. "I could probably climb out…"

"Don't even think about it, Carly." Zander coughed and shook his head. He lost his footing and almost fell backwards, but flailed with his good arm to keep his balance. "I can't climb outta here. I think my shoulder's dislocated."

She sighed in frustration. Carly bent down and started ripping the leg of her pants open, then snatched it off at the top. "My mother's a nurse," she said at his apprehensive look, one that grew with each step she took towards him. "I know what I'm doing." She tied his arm as tight as she could against his body. "Now, there's gotta be cops out there by now. And firemen. They probably don't even know we're in here."

"Uh huh. And…"

"And," she said, rolling her eyes, "once I get out, I can get them to come in and send down a rope or something."

"I don't like it, Carly. You'll burn your hands. The stones are too hot for you to touch. And you don't exactly have on climbing shoes."

"You know what? You need to have more faith in me." She ripped the other leg of her pants into shreds and tied them around her hands. "And you can stop looking at my legs. And don't even think about looking at my ass. You won't be getting anywhere near it." She smirked at him, then turned to the wall.

At one time, the walls of this building had been smooth. The explosion, though, had turned the walls into jagged crumbles with gapes and ledges large enough for her to hold onto. Carly looked down at her shoes and sighed. The heels were definitely not going to get her up there. Bending down, she yanked off the heels and threw them down into the fire. The flames shot up for a second and both she and Zander hunched down.

"Okay," she said, "I'm gonna climb up here and you…"

"I'll look for another way out, an easier way out. Because, when you fall, you're gonna need it."

Carly narrowed her eyes at him and glowered. Zander just shrugged. "Fine, have it your way. Don't have faith in me, but you'll see. And while I'll tell Lorenzo that you did your job as best you could and really tried, I won't tell him to give you a raise because you didn't believe in me."

"Uh huh. If your'e going, just go."

Zander turned away, his eyes searching, and Carly set her mind on the task at hand. She rubbed her cloth-wrapped hands together, then grabbed hold. The stones were hot, but the cloth was enough to protect her hands from serious burns. She planted one foot, testing the security, then rose the other. She looked over her shoulder and said, "So far, so good." Zander just grunted. "No faith," she muttered. "None at all."

Carly ignored Zander and concentrated on pushing herself to the top. The line of the wall broke into a large gap. She was careful to cross over, but almost fell as she passed the gap and heat rushed to her. She clung on tighter and looked up. Sweat fell into her eyes and acted like glue to stick her hair to her face. She coughed and her lungs burned. The air stank of burning alcohol, paper, and a few other things that she couldn't place. She wanted to get out and, despite what Zander said, this was the way to do it.

She moved up and over as the debris curved around. While the crumbling of the walls had been a blessing for her climbing expedition, it was a curse on her need to go straight up. The twists and turns sent her up and down. She moved as slowly as she could force herself to be, all the while feeling the urge to rush upwards and over.

Water sprinkled down on her head and she looked up. "Dammit!" A shower of water came from above, and she could hear voices. The firemen couldn't have come before she started climbing? Carly sighed and kept moving. She had to go slower. The falling water made the crumbling rocks slowly turn to mud. She stepped up and lost her footing. Carly held on tighter, but she knew she was going to fall. She looked down and she was right over the hole leading down into The Cellar. "Wonderful!"

"I'll catch you!" Zander had apparently decided to pay attention as he looked up at her, trying to position himself to get a hold of her.

"How are you gonna catch me, huh? You've got one arm!"

"Just keep going! If you fall, I've got you!"

"Uh huh." She grumbled under her breath and looked up. More water was pouring down, faster and harder. The firemen were moving closer, she could hear their voices growing louder. "Hey!" Carly shouted. "We're down here! Hey!"

Someone came forward, dressed in sooty yellow and looked down. "Are you alright!"

"Do I look alright? No, I'm not alright, you moron! Just… get us out of here!" She took in a deep breath, then coughed it out with force. "Get me outta here!"

At her last scream, the building started to rumble. Carly watched as the firemen scurried backwards. The water sprinkled to a stop. "Where are you going!" She looked up and debris was falling on her head. She tried to press herself against the wall, but a large rock hit her arm and made her lose her grip. She fell backwards, screaming, headed straight for the hole beneath her.

Heat surged up at her legs, scorching and irritating her skin, but she stopped falling. She blinked up and Zander was holding her by the wrist, his face twisted in pain and strain. "I got you," he said between clenched teeth. He started to pull and her arm ached. She screamed out as she scraped against the jagged rocks, but at least she wasn't in the fire. At least she was still alive.

Carly finally got up high enough to pull herself onto the landing and she breathed heavily. "Don't say it," she said between breaths. "I know what you're thinking and don't you say it 'cause if I don't take it from Lorenzo and Jason, I'm sure as hell not taking it from you."

"Would you just shut up a second?" Zander rolled his eyes and groaned. "While you were playing Spider Woman, I got an idea." He turned and motioned his head across the way. There was another hole a few feet away, smaller, with a ledge around it. Just beyond that was a hole that led… He wasn't sure where, but it was definitely outside. Every few minutes, waves of snow flew in. "If we can get around there, we can get out."

"Zander…" She crawled forward, wincing at the pain in her legs and arms. "That's underground. We still have to get up."

"It's a way out, Carly. That's a tunnel. Well, not really, but something like it, so workers can get in from the wiring. If we get in there, I know there's a way up. I don't know where it'll let us up, but it's up, and that's what we need." He looked at her and from his steady expression, she knew that he wasn't taking anymore talking and arguing. In a way, it reminded her of Lorenzo when he ended a discussion. She didn't know if that made her feel better or worse. "We're getting out of here, Carly, and we're going that way. So, shut up, stop bitching at me and help me stand up, alright? And, I swear, if you say one more thing, I'm leaving you behind."

"Zander!"

He looked at her and winked. "There are firemen out there. I'll just send one in with a rope."

Carly glared at him and growled. If there was one thing she hated more than being out of control, it was having her own words thrown in her face. "I really, really hate you," she muttered. But, she still stood up, helped Zander to his feet and together they headed towards the only route to freedom.


	24. Revenge Is Theirs

**_Note: I do not speak Spanish. I got the Spanish translation from an online translator._**

"I don't think this was such a good idea." Sage looked around apprehensively, shivering in the dark. Something was going on, and without a radio or television near, neither girl could say exactly what was happening. However, Sage had clearly heard police sirens, fire trucks and ambulances speeding through the streets as they snuck around through corridors and back alleys. "You know those sounds we heard…"

"Sage, please." Sofie shook her head. She quickly ducked down, grabbing her sister's arm and pulling her down, as well. Footsteps crunched leaves and she waited. She watched as legs past them, stopped a few feet away, then kept going. When she was sure they were alone, she turned to her sister. "Could you stop with the paranoia?"

"Paranoia? Sofie…" Sage groaned. Normally, she was up for all sorts of wild and crazy ideas. Going after Sonny Corinthos wasn't necessarily something she was against, but the way they were going about it… Sage was more likely to just steal one of her father's guns and shoot him in the middle of the street. It was a lot better than sneaking around the woods. "You know there's a war going on. Those sirens… what if it's Mom or Dad? Or Jason? Or… It could be anybody, and here we are. You know when they find out where we've been, we're gonna get spankings from everybody from here to Venezuela and back."

"No, we won't, because they'll be so glad that we've taken care of Corinthos, that they'll totally love us forever and Dad'll say that one day, we're going to take over his businesses."

"Oh… my… GOD! Sofie, you're insane!"

"And you're loud. Hush!" She barked out a whisper so harsh that it made her throat hurt. "We're not gonna get in trouble." Sofie reached around to her back and pulled out the black weapon. It had been in the drawer, just like Lorenzo had said, and now, it was tucked into the back of dark jeans, hidden beneath a long black leather duster. "We're taking care of business."

Sage rolled her eyes. "Damn, and people say I'm crazy." She sighed and settled down on her knees. Snow soaked through the legs of her jeans. She wore a leather duster like her sister, only hers was a smooth brown. Her gloved hands slid inside her pockets and she huddled against herself. "This is insane, Sofie. We should just go back to Dad and see what's going on."

"Or maybe you should shut up, so I can think." Sofie growled. She was unaccustomed to her sister being so whiny on one of their endeavors. She hadn't been so bad when they decided to spray paint the principal's car, a crime for which they'd never been convicted. Of course, they hadn't been caring weapons at the time, and their lives weren't in danger. But, then again, she didn't believe that Corinthos would actually hurt them. He might keep them prisoner for a while but actually hurt them? Highly unlikely. "I'm gonna…" She paused at the vibrating at her hip and grunted. "Oh, hell."

Sofie flipped her cell phone open and instantly, Michael's voice was in her ear. "Where the hell are you two! Have you lost your mind, sneaking out? There's stuff going on and the two of you need to be in the penthouse!"

"Hush!" Sofie growled. "We're on our way to take care of something. What's going on?"

"Oh, let's see…" A horn blared and Sofie knew that her brother was in his car. "I'm on my way to GH because Mom and Zander were in The Cellar when it blew up, how's that for starters? Oh, and they're trying to pin a dead body on Jason and Sam because somebody ambushed 'em outside of Luke's. There's all sorts of just great stuff going on while the two of you are off playing sleuth. And did I mention that my dad's in a piss of a mood because ELQ is going broke? Little in comparison, I know, but I've gotta deal with it."

Sofie's eyes narrowed. She hadn't heard much past The Cellar blowing up. She grew angrier as her chest heaved, taking in hard breaths. She stared ahead at the cabin across the way. Her vision blurred then red tinted the edges of her world. She stood up slowly and growled. "Get to the hospital and tell Dad that Corinthos is being taken care of." She flipped the phone closed and it fell from her hands as she stalked forward.

"Sofie?" Sage was up and following. Sofie didn't run, but her strides were as long as her short legs would take her, and quick. "Sofie!" Sage walked quickly to catch up with her. "What happened, Sofie? What's going on?"

"This guy tried to kill Mom."

"What!" She balked and her eyes grew wide. "Sofie, what are you…" She looked around to her sister's side and saw the gun in her hands. "Sofie, we need to get to Mom and Dad. We need to get to Tio Luis, or Jason, or… anybody who actually knows how to handle these things. We—"

And then her words were cut off as a gloved hand covered her mouth. Sofie whipped her head around just in time to see a tall man grabbing her sister. She tried to shoot the attacker, but couldn't get a shot that wouldn't endanger Sage. "Let her go!" Sofie screamed. Her demand was not obliged and then, within seconds, a hand was over her own mouth.

And across town, Michael Quartermaine's Ferrari was a crumpled mess.

* * *

Lorenzo was silent. He stared across the hospital corridor, his hands clenched at his knees. His white shirt was dotted with blood, a tangible memory of the cuts and scrapes that had leaked out onto him when he held his wife. She was alive, but the doctors were refusing to release her or Zander from medical care for at least twenty four hours. Among their other injuries, both were victims of smoke inhalation and the hospital didn't want them to walk out of their doors and collapse. They didn't want to open themselves for the lawsuit that the Alcazars would have surely slapped upon them. 

He listened to Jason's reports, his enforcer and friend standing over him. There were other people around, but they didn't say anything. Their energy, though… They're fear, anger and outrage seeped around him like a black cloud floating down to envelope him. He was almost positive that some of the anger was pointed in his direction, but he didn't care. At some point, someone would tell him what he knew already. He should have just let Luis handle Corinthos the way he wanted. Sometimes, diplomacy got one nowhere but hurt.

"They found the passageway, Lorenzo." Jason groaned and pressed his hand hard against his side. Sam moved in next to him, sliding underneath his arm, giving him extra weight to lean against. "Only you, Luis, me and the guards knew where it was, which meant that the girls have been snooping. They got out through the passage and worked their way out of the building. We haven't found them yet, but I have everybody looking for them."

"Lucky," Lorenzo said, his voice low. "His father taught him all of the routes in and around the city. They could be down in the catacombs, or anywhere. Send Lucky…"

"I sent him as soon as the cops let him go." He sighed. "Do we tell Carly?"

"Of course not." Lorenzo looked up at him. Strands of hair brushed his eyelids and he shoved it back. "She'll never stay here if she knows that Sofie and Sage are in trouble. We don't tell her anything until we know exactly where they are." He turned to his brother and said, "_Usted va de nuevo a Corinthos, con Jason y afortunado, tan pronto como tengamos las muchachas. Tráigalo al almacén y tomaré el cuidado de él. Debo haber hecho esto cuando él primero demostró para arriba. Pero, no es demasiado atrasado. Conseguimos las muchachas caseras y entonces tomo el cuidado de Corinthos._"

(You're going back to Corinthos, with Jason and Lucky, as soon as we have the girls. Bring him to the warehouse and I'll take care of him. I should have done this when he first showed up. But, it's not too late. We get the girls home and then I take care of Corinthos.)

Luis nodded. His eyes looked around to the people within earshot. Alexis stood behind Lorenzo, staring at the back of his head. It was clear that she had caught every single word, and she didn't like it. "You shouldn't be listening to this," he told her. "If my brother were in his right mind, he wouldn't have said it with you so close."

"I have heard absolutely nothing, and as far as anyone knows, I do not speak Spanish." She took a step back. "I shouldn't hear anything else, however, which means I'm going to find other things to do than listen to all of you talk business." She looked at Sam. "Whether you speak the language or not, right now, you don't, so you should probably come with me."

"I'm not…" Sam started to protest and Jason shook his head. He pushed her towards Alexis and she sighed. "See what happens?" She sighed again and shook her head. "Fine, I'll go with Alexis. Maybe I'll go in and see Carly or something."

Alexis and Sam walked off, and they weren't around the corner when they ran into Emily, Nikolas, and Gia. The two of them were occupied, which left the three mobsters to discuss business. "I don't speak Spanish, but I get the drift," Jason said, "and you're not doing it. It's my job, and I'll handle it."

"These were personal attacks, Jason. More than that, it was a message. Corinthos will honor no deal, we see that. He has wasted all of our time and I will be done with him once and for all."

"Let me do it, Lorenzo. The last thing Carly or the girls need is for you to go to jail. Because if you do this… There's no way that Ric's gonna let you off."

Jason started to speak again, but was stopped when AJ came streaking through the doors. He ran up to Jason, grabbing him. "Where is he? Did they bring him in yet?"

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Michael!" The second he spoke the name, Lorenzo was on his feet. "Whatever mess you've gotten him into… The whole damn town is a mess! I didn't even hear about Carly until I got back to the boat house and saw a note from Michael."

"What are you saying?" Lorenzo stepped forward, running his hands through his hair. "Where is Michael and what happened?"

"I got a call from Mac. Right now, it looks like somebody cut a line… the break fluid leaked out and he couldn't stop. He crashed into somebody and they're bringing him here. What the hell is going on, Alcazar!"

Lorenzo didn't have time to discuss things with AJ Quartermaine. He felt guilty that the man's son was injured in all of this, but in the end, there was nothing he could do to alleviate his fears. He was just glad that Michael was almost eighteen, which meant that it was too far into things for AJ to try a custody battle.

The doors burst open again and medical personnel brought in two gurneys. On one, a tall blonde laid unconscious, a brace surrounding her neck and head. Behind her, they brought in Michael. The boy was conscious, fighting against the restraints that tried to hold him down, yelling that he had to talk to his father, he had to get to his uncle and his stepdad.

The quartet of Alcazars and Quartermaines rushed to the moving gurney, shoving doctors aside. Michael caught sight of Lorenzo and grabbed his arm. "Sofie and Sage… You've gotta stop 'em. They went after Corinthos."

Michael was moved along and the men were pushed back. AJ looked at Lorenzo and couldn't say anything. His throat was clogged with anger and fear over his son. He gave him a firm glare, then stalked off, following his son into emergency. Lorenzo looked from Luis to Jason, and then back again. "The hell with what I said earlier," he said. Lorenzo turned and stalked towards the door. "We take care of Corinthos right now."


	25. Triage

"Dad...say something." Michael hated the pleading tone in his voice but the sight of the reigned fury in his father's eyes deflated him and regressed him to about 5, just begging for assurance that AJ wasn't going to fly off the handle.

"Your mother is lucky that you're almost eighteen." AJ turned away from his son and stared out into the hallway. Carly had yet to come through the door, and with each passing moment, he expected her to come storming in. Either no one had told her yet, or the doctors had strapped her to her own bed to keep her from leaving. Either way, she wasn't there. "I knew I should've fought harder to get you out of that house."

"Dad, don't…"

"Don't what?" AJ spun around, his body heaving with each painful breath. He didn't have to say anything for Michael to know that he was angry, more angry than he'd ever seen him before. "Don't be pissed off that your mother's husband nearly got you killed? That her daughters nearly got you killed? Tell me, Michael, exactly how am I supposed to not be pissed about that?"

Michael tucked in on himself and AJ sighed. He didn't want him to shrink away from him, but he couldn't hold his anger. How could he not care that his son had been the target of a mob hit? He'd gone through so much with Carly just to get the opportunity to see his son regularly, he wasn't going to lose him in some kind of mob war.

"Tell me, Michael, shouldn't I be pissed at Alcazar? Shouldn't I want to kill him for getting you involved in this?"

Michael opened his mouth, then closed it. If he said that he didn't have the right, then he'd be lying and a hypocrite. How many times had he stood beside Sofie and Sage while they defended Lorenzo and Jason? "Yeah, Dad, you have the right," he said with a sigh. Unlike saying such a thing to his uncle or to one of the Alcazars, Michael knew that, in the end, his father wouldn't go through with it. AJ was a lot of things, but he wasn't a murderer.

And then, the two were silent. For a few minutes, they stared at one another wordlessly. Michael's head dipped and AJ turned away. Michael still felt like the small boy who'd gotten in trouble, but this time, it wasn't his fault. When he was little, though, a lot was his fault.

Sighing, Michael broke the silence. "How's that lady? The one I hit?"

AJ looked at him and shrugged. "How should I know? I'm not her father, I'm yours." He stopped, knowing how harsh that sounded. He wasn't heartless. An innocent woman had been caught in the middle of their extended family mess, and that did make him feel bad. But for the moment… "I don't know. I didn't check. I was too worried about you."

"I just… I saw her when they loaded her in, ya know? And she was a lot worse off than I was. I just hope I didn't hurt her."

"You didn't hurt anybody, Michael." He sighed. "But, if you want, I'll go check it out for you, alright? I think Dad was in there with her, or Tony, so…" He shrugged. "Maybe one of them will tell me something."

"Thanks, Dad. I…" He stopped as movement at the door caught his eye. Carly stood in the doorway, leaning against crutches. Her left ankle was bandaged heavily. A large piece of gauze was taped across her forehead. More gauze peeked out from beneath the sleeves of her hospital robe. She was slightly burned, somewhat battered, and walking on crutches, but she was alive and that was good enough for Michael.

AJ looked from Carly to Michael and sighed. If she were a little less banged up, he'd have probably railed all over her. However, despite the bad blood between them, he'd never liked seeing her hurt. She was the mother of his son, after all. He didn't want her injured and most certainly didn't want her dead. He looked at Michael and gave the barest shake of his head. She still was unaware of the disappearance of her daughters, and AJ at least wanted to get out of the room before she could possibly find out.

AJ slipped out of the room, leaving the two alone. Carly moved slowly into the room, but Michael could tell that she wanted to move faster. She gave withering glares to either of the crutches as she pushed herself forward, muttering words that he couldn't hear until she reached the bed and sat down.

"Tell me what happened, Michael."

He looked at his mother and swallowed hard. He didn't know how to not tell her, mostly because even if he lied, which he'd done often enough, she would guess what was going on, anyway. She had, after all, nearly died. It wasn't too far of a stretch to figure out how Michael got into his accident. What he did know, though, was that the guard posted at the door had brought him a message. Lorenzo didn't want Carly to know that the girls weren't safe at home.

"What does it matter what happened?" He shrugged. "Accidents happen, but I'm fine. Really."

Carly looked at him with disapproval. She wasn't an idiot, and she knew when she was being lied to. Oh, he may have been fine, but this wasn't just an accident, and she knew that. The fact that she hadn't seen Lorenzo since she was loaded into the ambulance, or Jason or Luis for that matter, told her that something was going on. More than that, she was a good enough liar to know when she was being told a lie.

"Michael Morgan Quartermaine…" She twisted her face in disgust. No matter how old her son got, she'd never be able to stand the fact that she had allowed him to take his father's last name. Carly shook her head. "You're lying to me."

"Mom, I'm not. Honest. I'm fine. They just have me here 'cause I hit my head in the accident. Observation, Grandpa Alan said. But, that lady I hit was worse off. That's where Dad went. I told him to go see if she was okay, 'cause it would be really screwed up if she was bad off 'cause I skidded on some ice and she could sue us. If Dad's nice, then maybe she won't sue us and…"

"And you're babbling, which really tells me that you're lying." Carly sat back and looked around the room. Everything was quiet in their silence, and the emptiness of the room made her shudder. "There's something wrong here, Michael, and I think you know what it is. I remember Zander on the phone, saying it was a double cross. You were hit, because of Lorenzo's business."

"Mom…" He sighed. "If this is gonna mess up you and Lorenzo…"

"Don't worry. I made my decision a long time ago, and I know it's too late to change it now. Sometimes, I even think I'd be bored without him, and the girls… Sofie and Sage would never speak to me again, and I couldn't take them from him anymore than I could leave him. But, I know that this is because of the decision I made. I know that you drive well enough not to skid on ice. And I know from the look on AJ's face that he's pissed at Lorenzo and he's pissed at me, and ya know what? I don't care. Let him be upset."

"Mom…"

"But, you're my son, Michael. I love you." She reached out to him and laid her hand against his arm. "And if you love me, you'll tell me what's going on. Lorenzo's hiding something, and you know what it is. He probably told you not to tell me, but I need to know. What isn't being told to me?"

He hated being in the middle. More than that, he hated having to lie about something like this, but he knew that Carly would never stay put if she knew what was going on. She'd go running on crutches right out into the snow to look for Sofie and Sage. She'd just end up hurt again. It was really hard, sometimes, being more responsible and sensical than his mother. With her and AJ as his influences, he had no idea how he ended up that way. It had to have been Lorenzo and Jason's influence.

Michael sighed. "Let Lorenzo handle it, Mom. It's not something you wanna know, and I don't want to tell you, so I won't tell you."

"Michael, I'm your mother. You'll do what I say."

"You're my mother, and that's exactly why I won't do what you're telling me."

"It's Sofie and Sage, isn't it?" She stood up from the bed and settled herself on her crutches. Carly launched herself across the room and fell down in the nearest chair. "Tell me where your sisters are, Michael. Tell me why Lorenzo and Jason and Luis aren't in this hospital with us. Tell me what's going on or…"

"Or what? There's nothing you can do, and I'm not telling you so I can watch you break down or scream or whatever you'd do if you knew. You'll know when everything's over."

"When they're safe." Carly watched her son, and he did nothing. He wore the same blank face that his stepfather and uncle had worn on more than one occasion. The expressionless stare that said that she was probably right, but the words were never going to come out of his mouth. "Corinthos tried to kill you, I know that Michael." He still didn't say anything. "And your sisters aren't at the penthouse."

"You're not getting anything out of me, Mom, so just… stop, alright?"

Carly's hands fell from the sides of her crutches and they clattered to the floor. She leaned forward and tears fell silently from her eyes. Had the words actually come from him, or anyone else, she probably would have been wracked with sobs. But with it only being real in her mind, all she could manage were silent tears. She looked up at Michael with streaming eyes, her bottom jaw trembling, and said, "I already got it out of you."


	26. Rescue and Revenge

"Well, this is a fine mess you've gotten me into." Sage rolled her eyes and struggled against the bonds that held her arms. "_Soy el que se supone para conseguirnos en apuro, moron. No puedo creer que usted hizo esto a mí. Estoy diciendo a Mamá!_"

"If you call me a moron, one more time…" Sofie twisted her hands, keeping her feet still. "And I don't really care if you tell Mom. You're the one that gets us into this stuff, normally, so I'll just tell her that you did it."

"Sofie!" Sage grunted and started to fidget, then stopped when she realized her legs were moving too much. "You do realize we're up a creek if Dad or someone comes through this place and opens the door, right? Did you have a plan for that, oh great planning one?"

"Actually, smartass, I do have a plan." Sofie sucked in a great breath and screamed. "Dad! Jason!" She looked at her sister. "Come on! Scream!"

The two began to scream, still trying to get their hands loose, calling alternate names of anyone who might possibly come to their rescue. Of course, there wasn't much they could do if they managed to get their hands free other than freeze in that same spot. The ropes that bound their feet were attached to a bomb that sat between them on the ground. If the ropes moved too much, the counter started ticking. If they were removed without the bomb being disarmed, they would blow up in seconds. Corinthos had explained to them clearly, and after hearing what he'd done or attempted to do to everyone else they knew and loved, neither girl doubted his words.

"Seriously, Sofie, if we die here, I'm gonna kill you!" Sage started to scream again, yelling Spanish curses at her twin. She caught sight of movement out the corner of her eye and stopped. "Hello?" She waited, and there was the movement, again. Then a thump. Two soft pops. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah." Sofie went still and stared off, squinting her eyes to get a better look. "I think… I think that was a gunshot, but…" She stopped as a dark head appeared to her and she whispered, "I think it's Lucky."

"Are you sure? It could be…" She stopped as the figure came more clear, moving closer. "It is!" She started to scream out his name, but stopped, in case there were someone lurking nearby.

Lucky Spencer came from the bushes behind the old house, moving slowly through the snow. From the side of the building, Nikolas Cassadine snuck out. He was bundled tightly against the elements, but his complexion and eyes were visible enough for identification. From the other side of the house came Gia Campbell. She, too, was bundled, but there was no mistaking the diminuitive princess-to-be.

"You have got to be kidding me," Sofie muttered as all three knelt at their feet. "You brought a Cassadine and his fiancee to rescue us?"

"I'll have you know," Gia said, "that I've done some pretty damn undesirable things, so helping out Lucky wasn't all that hard. Besides, Nikolas is a Cassadine. They excel at ruthless."

"Ya know, if I were sure that was a compliment, I'd thank you." Nikolas grunted and turned from the bomb to Lucky. "Did your father ever teach you to disarm one of these? Because my grandmother may have been a complete psycho, but she never taught me how to disarm a bomb."

"Sorta…" Lucky shrugged, his eyes focused on the mechanics in front of him. He looked up at Sage and Sofie. "Okay, I'm gonna move you two and…"

"No!" They yelled simultaneously. Sage shook her head violently. "If we move, this thing blows. And if anybody comes out of this door, we blow. Where's Dad? Please tell me that you guys aren't are only rescue."

"Would you just hush for a second?" Lucky wiped sweat from his forehead, then pulled out a small phone. He pressed a button, then said, "Here's a note for you. If you don't want your neices to blow up, tell everybody not to come out the back door and don't let anyone out the back door. Nikolas says that the house is empty except for Corinthos and three of his guards. Just stay away from the back door, got me? Now, don't call back. I'm gonna be really busy here."

* * *

Lorenzo's eyes were dark and the intent in his eyes was clear to the two men that stood to either side of him. Murder, plain and simple. As Luis explained the situation to them, Lorenzo grew more and more dark. He didn't scream with rage, or send a rain of Spanish profanity through the air as Luis had done upon hanging up the phone. He didn't seethe as Jason did with each word that Luis spoke. 

No, the anger that welled within Lorenzo Alcazar was a cold, calm emotion. His blood ran cold and his body shivered. In his mind, pictures of what he would do to those waiting inside flashed then changed. With each passing moment, his decision of what to do fluctuated, moving from a gruesome and terrifying massacre, to a cold execution with Corinthos looking him dead in the eye.

Lorenzo stepped forward, his hand on the doorknob, and didn't even realize that they had already crossed the long walkway. Luis had spoken as they moved and time seemed to be inconsequential. It was as though he had walked through a worm hole and wound up on the other side of the universe, the other side of existence.

The three of them were the only ones going inside, but they weren't the only people on the compound. In the dark of night, their soldiers moved around the property, disposing of every one of Corinthos's men. By the morning, there would be no hint of any Corinthos employees in Port Charles. All of their bodies would be properly disposed of, but Corinthos… He would be an example to anyone else who thought they could enter his territory, anyone who thought they could come to his home and threaten his family.

The door opened and Sonny Corinthos was seated in a large, antique chair about ten feet from the door. His hands were steepled, the inner ridge slicing his lips in half. Two tall, Latin men stood to either side of his chair and the third stood behind him. He lowered his hands slowly and his grin was sadistic. He enjoyed this far too much. There were those in their organization who found the necessary killing distasteful, but they did it when there was no other choice. Corinthos, however, seemed to be of the other variety, who enjoyed ever part of his dark work. He took too much pleasure in having the Alcazar twins attached to bombs outside his back door.

"_Tomo su aspecto personal para significar que usted realiza que sus hijas muy absurdas han encontrado su manera en mi cuidado blando, cariñoso._"

Lorenzo smirked. Were Jason not there, he probably would have replied in kind, in his native language. However, he was not going to leave one of his lieutenants in the dark. More than that, he had no intention of letting Corinthos have the upper hand. They were already on his ground, but he would not let him set the pace for this conversation.

Before another word was said, before another move was made, Jason and Luis rose their arms and the two men on either side of Sonny went down with a single bullet hole in their foreheads. Corinthos didn't move, but the guard behind him twitched just enough that, were he closer, Lorenzo thought he might have seen a line of sweat over his upper lip.

"My daughters will be leaving your special care very soon, Corinthos. Too bad you won't be going anywhere."

"Do you think I'm a fool, Alcazar?" Sonny stood slowly, his hands falling to his sides. "Did you really think that I would believe the farce your brother put on here, today? I know enough about the Alcazar family to know that Luis is never sent to handle business dealings that are meant to be honored. You would have done the same as I, only I struck first."

"You struck first, but we strike last."

"I'm surprised the three of you got past my guards." He shrugged. "Of course, I'm assuming that you brought more than stepped foot into my home. Your daughters, however… the only way you'll see them again is if they follow their dear _papa_ to hell."

In a lightning blink, the dark room was suddenly alight with gunfire. The opposing factions took refuge on either side of the large room. Corinthos and his guard were outnumbered, but they were picking their shots, holding their own, and coming closer and closer to hitting their mark. On their own side, Morgan and the Alcazars were firing more randomly, with many of their shots meant not to hit them as much as to keep them from sneaking past the back door.

A cry from the left turned Lorenzo's head and he watched Luis go down with a bullet in his shoulder, the opposite shoulder that had been taken months before by Lorenzo. He dove to the side and came up beside his brother. Lorenzo held the wound tightly with one hand. Luis continued to fire with his free hand.

Then Corinthos made a break for it. "Jason!" Luis called out. Jason's head spun and he took off running. He shot as he ran and his bullet caught the remaning guard in the back, just to the left of his spine. Lorenzo fired and his bullet took the man in the neck. Luis fired and got him in the back of the head before he fell to the floor.

Jason chased after Corinthos, firing as he moved towards the dark and looming back door. Before they reached the outer door, they would have to go down a long stairwell, through a small dark hallway, and then they would be outside. Jason was just at the stairs when he yelled back, "Get Luis out of here! Go, Lorenzo!"

Lorenzo pulled Luis to his feet and started to run in Jason's direction, but Luis stopped him. "We have to get out of here, Lorenzo! Just in case!"

"My girls are back there, Luis! How in the hell do you expect me to just run!"

"Like this!" Luis leaned all of his weight on Lorenzo and shoved him towards the door. "If Jason sacrifices himself, he did it for the girls. Spencer's out back… There might be other shit in here to go, Lorenzo."

"I can't…" He grunted under his brother's weight. "I can't just let him do this! They're my daughters! I'm the one who should die for them!"

"Then die on the other side of the door!" Luis jerked hard and they went sprawling outside, both men covered in snow. Lorenzo jumped to his feet, pulling Luis behind him. They trailed around the side of the building, Luis dripping blood in the snow, doing their best to get to the back door, if nothing else to lean against it and keep it closed. Just in case Lucky hadn't finished with the bomb.

And in the rear of the house, a bullet pierced Sonny Corinthos in the side as he reached the back door, but not before he turned the knob and started to push it open.


	27. The Heroes' Welcome

The hospital room was crowded, and it was only due to the various relations that certain people had to the higher-ups in the hospital that stopped security from coming in and escorting the majority of the room out. As it were, the room held enough Quartermaines to keep the men in uniform at bay. Outside the door, anyone who thought they would tell Mrs. Alcazar that there were too many people in her son's room would have to get through two South American guards and a heavily bandaged Zander Smith.

Carly laid stretched on Michael's bed, having been advised that she probably needed to lie down more than he did. For the most part, Michael was well except for some bruises and stitches, and a mild concussion that Tony Jones wanted to keep an eye on. Carly, however, had gotten dizzy about half an hour of sitting with her head down. She wasn't leaving the room, so the only place for her to go was her son's bed.

AJ stood staring out the room's window. He watched the snow fall, wondering if he should even be there. No doubt, when their business was taken care of, this was the first place Lorenzo would bring his trio of mobsters and AJ wasn't all that sure he could see the man without screaming at him. Only Carly's own injuries had kept him from screaming at her. Lorenzo, however, was an entity all his own and could handle anything AJ said, so he thought that maybe he should have been back out checking on the other half of Michael's accident instead of waiting for news.

Emily sat in the doorway, her legs crossed, the left line of her body pushing against Zander's leg. He needed to lie down just as much as Carly, but he refused to go anywhere but that door. He told her that he still had a job to do, and he had to do it better this time. She just wanted him to sit somewhere and let his dislocated shoulder and aching lungs rest. Well, that wasn't all she wanted. She also wanted to know for sure that Lucky, Nikolas and Gia were fine… and why THEY got to go out in the adventure and she had to stay behind.

The Quartermaine doctors, Alan and Monica, drifted in and out of the room to check on Michael, but Barbara Jean Spencer sat beside the bed, softly rubbing her daughter's hair. She wished that Luke were in town, because he would probably know exactly what to do and how to handle things. This couldn't be much different than dealing with Helena Cassadine, after all. If he could take out the majority of the Cassadine family, he'd be able to help out with one dirty mobster who didn't know how to leave children out of things.

In the corner, Brenda stood with Lois. She had considered bringing Jax with her, but thought better of it the second she mentioned the idea to Lois. There was no way that she wanted Luis and Jax in such close proximity. She, too, knew that the Alcazars would show here, first, and she had to see that he was alright for herself. She may have been angry with him for showing back up, angry with him for leaving, but the second she heard Carly say that they had gone after the girls, she grew worried, almost fearful. She'd come to the hospital to check on former friends, people who were very nearly relatives at one point, and stayed behind for Luis.

And seated at the foot of the bed was Sam McCall, with Alexis posted at her side. It was Alexis's job to make sure she didn't get out of the room, and if Alexis failed, the guards at the door were not to let her get far. The second Carly said Luis, Lorenzo and Jason had gone after Corinthos, she had threatened to bolt. In that moment, she and Carly shared a glance that said Carly understood what she wanted to do and would have done it herself if she could. They may not have liked one another, but they understood each other, and sometimes, that was more important. At that moment, though, the only thing important to Sam was Jason, and she had no idea whether he were dead or alive.

The scuffle of Emily rising to her feet turned heads. The squeak that came from her throat popped Carly up straight. Sofie and Sage came rushing through the door, and didn't stop until they had collapsed on Michael's bed. Arms enveloped them and their mothers tears fell hotly on their heads. It had already been discussed, in the car on the way to the hospital, they had been told that their mother didn't need to know the details of their captivity, nor anyone else for that matter. She was never to know that the bomb did blow, but they were already disconnected from it. She didn't need to know that there had been a bomb at all. Right then, they couldn't think about it anyway. The only thing that mattered was that, though dirty, they were back with their family and their mother cried onto them.

Lorenzo walked into the room next and instantly locked eyes with AJ. No words were exchanged, and none were necessary. AJ was angry that his son was caught in the middle of this mess, and Lorenzo knew that he was right. If Michael were younger, it might have even been enough for him to talk to Carly about letting Michael be with AJ more. This was a dangerous life, so dangerous that it even occurred to him to tell Carly to leave him and take the girls with her. He'd done it once before, and she'd told him in no uncertain terms that she wasn't going anywhere. She would probably do the same this time.

Luis entered the room, leaning heavily on Lucky. Bobbie was on her feet instantly, rushing to her nephew. She didn't know that the blood covering his clothes didn't belong to him. She didn't know that the dirt and soot on his face wasn't hiding any more serious damage. Gia and Nikolas walked into the room behind him, both dirty and both alright. Alexis left her post at Sam's side, going instantly to her nephew. This was the last time, she told him, that he would be involved in anymore Alcazar mess. His reply was, "When you stop, I'll stop," and she had no reply.

Luis stood in the middle of the room, his face drained, clothes covered in blood. Once Bobbie was sure that Lucky was alright, she went straight to him, checking his wound and sending Emily out to get a doctor. Luis could have cared less, though, because his eyes were trained on Brenda. His family was crying and his sister-in-law were swearing that her daughters were very lucky they were too old for spankings, but he could only look at Brenda Barrett. She was the only person in the world at the moment, the only one who mattered, because she was actually there. Brenda walked towards him, then stopped herself. She stared at him, and Luis could tell that it took all of her will and Lois's tight grip to keep her in her place. She stared at him until Monica came into the room with orderlies and pulled him away, then she turned and looked at Lois with teary eyes, a shaky lip, and no words.

On the floor, Sam waited. She stood up when Luis came in, knowing that at any second, Jason would come through the door. She waited, twisting her hands, folding them over and over, but he didn't come. She pushed everyone out of the way, nearly knocking Luis over as he was led out of the room. She looked down one way, then the other, and still no Jason. She spun and looked around the room. All the happy families, all the relieved faces. Even Brenda was relieved, and last she'd heard, her life no longer centered around Luis. Everyone had who they'd been waiting for except her.

Sam strode with heavy steps to Luis, her bootheels thumping hard against the floor. She grabbed Lorenzo by the arm and spun him around. "Where is Jason?"

"Sam…"

"Where is he!" The room fell silent and she screamed again. "Where is Jason!" Her words seemed to echo throughout the room, bouncing off of each chest within range and resounding back to her ears. "Where is Jason! Where is Jason! You brought Luis back and you brought Lucky back and everybody else! Where is Jason!"

Sam started to droop to the floor and Lorenzo grabbed her. She looked up at him with tear drenched cheeks. Her mouth opened in a silent scream. A squeak pushed out of her throat then stretched into a strangled cry. "Where is he, Lorenzo! Where is he?"

Lorenzo looked past her, to Alexis, then back to Carly. He wondered if Carly was going to start screaming, too, but she didn't. The only reason he could come up with was because her children were right there. Maybe she wanted to be adult about the situation or maybe she just wanted to revel in their lives. Whatever the reason, she didn't scream, she didn't yell. She did cry, though, and he knew that the renewed tears were for Jason.

"Go to the penthouse and wait for him, Sam," he said softly, brushing her hair back. "I know what you're thinking and…" Lorenzo sighed, slowly bringing Sam to her feet. "Just go to the penthouse. Wait there."


	28. Epilogue

Her body twitched, and had she not known that there were guards waiting right outside the door, prepared to shove her back inside and slam it in her face, Sam would have run straight outside and searched the night for Jason. It wasn't fair that everyone had their lives back. It wasn't fair that she had to wait. It wasn't fair that she didn't know why she had to wait at the penthouse, instead of at the hospital like everyone else.

Carly had an excuse. There was no way that her mother would allow her to be discharged until well into the next afternoon. Because of her own injuries, she was able to be with her son, her daughters, and her husband could be there, as well. She could be with her entire family, including brother-in-law and relatives that she wished didn't exist. Which meant that she could also be there if Jason were brought into the hospital.

Sam wondered if that was why she had to wait at home. Was Lorenzo afraid that she would cause a scene when Jason was wheeled in? The thought angered her. Why should Carly get the chance to cause a scene? She would be there, and she would see Jason on his deathbed, and she would be able to say goodbye. Sam would have to wait until everyone else knew. She would probably have to wait until they reported it on the news.

The television was off just for that reason. Were she to turn on any program, only to have it broken into by an urgent news update, one that pronounced Jason Morgan being rushed to the hospital or worse, as dead on the scene… She knew she wouldn't have been able to handle it. Jason was her life, and if he were to die, there would be nothing left. She was alone in the penthouse, alone in Harborview Towers, though plenty of strangers occupied various apartments in the building, and she couldn't handle receiving news of that kind alone.

It had been hours since she was sent from the hospital, accompanied by Lucky Spencer. Emily had offered to go with her, but Sam could see that she wanted to stay with Zander. Besides, if the news came back bad, the last thing Sam would be able to deal with was the breakdown of Jason's sister. So, she got to stay at the hospital, to have her scene where medical professionals would be able to attend to her, to revive her when she fell faint to the floor. Sam would just have to fall to the floor and wait for someone to arrive for her revival, if she woke up at all.

The door started to open slowly, and Sam spun around, her anxious and nervous pacing coming to an abrupt stop. Her hands were clenched in front of her, braced tightly beneath her chin. Her thumbs pressed against her still chest. Her breath stopped as she watched the door open more and tears fell from her eyes. She waited, chest burning, lungs aching to breathe, but she wouldn't let them. Not until she saw the visitor, saw the face that came to bear the bad news to her.

Jason stepped into the penthouse, closing the door behind him. His face was covered in dust and soot. His leather jacket was torn, ripped to shreds and hanging off of him. His face was scratched. His neck and the parts of his chest she could see through his torn t-shirt held ever expanding sections of blood. He limped and stumbled, moving closer to her. He shifted his weight to his left leg and his right balanced on the ball of his foot. He stepped forward more, until he reached the end of his desk, then placed his hand flat on the desk and let his body sag.

Sam's knees went weak as she released the hold on her breath. Her body started to collapse into itself, but before she could fall to her knees, she pushed herself forward. Sam ran to Jason, wrapping her arms around him. His left arm went around her waist and he pressed her face against his chest. At the same time that she felt his blood oozing against her face, the touch of something solid hit her back.

Sam stepped back just enough to look up at his face. She wiped tears from the right side of her face and the drops smeared with Jason's blood. She looked at her fingers, coated red with the coagulating fluid, then looked back up at Jason. He was bleeding, he was hurt, but he was alive. Injuries could heal. Blood could be washed off. He was alive, and nothing else counted.

Jason pulled his arm from around her and handed her the gun. "Dismantle it," he said, his voice low and soft. "Take it apart and tomorrow, we'll dump the parts in the harbor."

"Jason?"

"Alexis can only hold off the search warrant for so long. At the latest, in the afternoon." He pushed himself up and stood as tall as he could. "I'll run a hot bath, soak myself and… I hope you'll be in there with me."

She looked up at him and understood. He didn't need to say that he loved her. He had come home. He hadn't even stopped at the hospital. Battered and bruised, he came home because he had to let her see that she was alright. He had to alleviate her pain. And her tears at the sight of him said she loved him and needed him more than any words could say. And, above his presence, above his embrace, the most important thing to Sam was the gun. Jason trusted her to help him, knew that she would take care of everything.

Sam nodded and took the gun from his hand. Jason bent down and kissed her lips gently, then stood straight. "I'll see you in a few minutes." Jason turned and limped across the room, then up the stairs, leaning against the wall for support. And as soon as he was out of Sam's direct line of sight, she pulled a rag out from one of the desk drawers and set about to the quick task of dismantling the gun in her hands. It was still warm.

* * *

General Hospital. Late at night, with the moon shining into the room, slit into pieces by the blinds. There were only two people in the room, and the door was closed. One person stood outside the door, making sure that the occupants weren't disturbed. One lied in the bed, his body weak and half of his torso bandaged. The other stood to the left of the bed, arms folded. The television blared… 

"_Known drug trafficker, suspected murderer, and alleged racketeer Sonny Corinthos has been found floating in the Port Charles Harbor. No details have been officially released by the Port Charles Police Department and, on request of police commissioner Mac Scorpio, the identity of the witness who found the body is being withheld from the general public. However, word is quickly spreading that Corinthos died of two bullet wounds, one to the throat and the second to the forehead. No arrests have been made and Commissioner Scorpio has not yet named any suspects. Stay tuned to Channel 4 news, as we will continue to keep you updated._"

Lorenzo Alcazar let his arms drop to his sides and turned. He cast his gaze down to Luis Alcazar, and the two men nodded. Luis turned off the television and closed his eyes. Lorenzo touched his twin tentatively on the shoulder, nodded once more, then walked out of the room with his back straight and his mind at ease.

* * *

**_Author's Note: I realize that everything was not completely resolved, and that is for a number of reasons. First, if you've read any of my other completed fics and one shot stories, you'll see that I don't wrap everything up in a neat little bow. I like to leave some things to the imagination. Secondly, this will evolve into a series of sorts. I will be continuing with this world in other stories that are more couple centric, i.e. Brenda and Luis, Nikolas and Gia, AJ and an OC, Jason and Sam, etc. Right now, those named specifically are the ones I know for sure that I'll be working on. Others may come as I think of them. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and enjoyed the fic. Your reviews were much appreciated and I'm glad that I was able to entertain you for a little while._**


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